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The 

Wars of Religion in France 

1559-1576 



The 
Wars of Religion in France 

1559-1576 

The Huguenots Catherine de Medici 
and Philip II 



BY 

James Westfall Thompson, Ph.D. 

Associate Professor of European History in 
the University of Chicago 




(ARMS OK LA ROCHEI.LE) 



CHICAGO : 
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 

LONDON: 
T. FISHER UNWIN, i ADELPHI TERRACE 

1909 



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CopYRiGkT 1909 By 
The University of Chicago 



Published May 1909 



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Composed and Printed By 

The University of Cliicago Press 

Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A. 



LIBRARY Of CONGRESS 

Two Coni'-s -Receivecl 

MAY 12 iyt)9 

CLAS8 Cl XXc. No. 



TO 

MARY HAWES WILMARTH 

THE LARGESS OF WHOSE SPIRIT HAS MADE THE 

WORLD RICHER AND LIFE NOBLER 



PREFACE 

No one acquainted with the history of historical writing can 
have failed to observe how transitory are its achievements. Mark 
Pattison's aphorism that "history is one of the most ephemeral 
forms of hterature" has much of truth in it. The reasons of this 
are not far to seek. In the first place, the most laborious historian 
is doomed to be superseded in course of time by the accumulation 
of new material. In the second place, the point of view and the 
interpretation of one generation varies from that which preceded 
it, so that each generation requires a rewriting of history in terms 
of its own interest. 

These reasons must be my excuse for venturing to write a new 
book upon an old subject. It is now nearly thirty years since the 
appearance of the late Professor Henry M. Baird's excellent work. 
The Rise of the Huguenots (New York, 1879), and little that is 
comprehensive has since been written upon the subject in English, 
with the exception of Mr. A. W. Whitehead's admirable Gaspard 
de Coligny, Admiral of France (London, 1904). But the limita- 
tions imposed by biographical history compel an author inevitably 
to ignore movements or events not germane to his immediate 
subject, which, nevertheless, may be of great importance for gen- 
eral history. Moreover, a biography is limited by the term of 
life of the hero, and his death may not by any means terminate 
the issue in which he was a factor — as indeed was the case with 
Cohgny. 

An enumeration of the notable works — sources and authori- 
ties — ^which have been published since the appearance of Professor 
Baird's work may serve to justify the present volume. First and 
foremost must be mentioned the notable Lettres de Catherine de 
Medicis, the lack of which Ranke deplored, edited by the late Count 
Hector de la Ferriere and M. Baguenault de la Puchesse (9 vols.), 
the initial volume of which appeared in 1880. Of diplomatic 
correspondence we have the Ambassade en Espagne de JeanEbrard, 



I 
! 



Vlll PREFACE 

seigneur de St. Sulpice de 1562 a ij6j (Paris, 1902), edited by 
M. Edmond Cabie, and the Depeches de M. Fourquevaux, ambas- 
sadeur du roi Charles IX en Espagne, i^6j-'/2, in three volumes, 
edited by the Abbe Douais (Paris, 1896), Other sources which 
have seen the hght within the last three decades are M, Delaborde's 
Vie de Coligny (3 vols., 187 7-), the title of which is somewhat mis- 
leading, for it is really a collection of Cohgny's letters strung upon 
the thread of his career; the Baron Alphonse de Ruble's Antoine 
de Bourbon et Jeanne d'Albret (4 vols., 1881); M. Ludovic La- 
lanne's new annotated edition of D'Aubigne (1886), and the new 
edition of Beza's Histoire ecclesiastique (ed. of Baum, 1883). 
Finally, among sources should be included many volumes in the 
" Calendar of State Papers." Professor Baird has rightly said that 
"Too much weight can scarcely be given to this source of 
information and illustration." His praise would probably have 
been even greater if he could have used the correspondence of Dale 
and Smith as freely as he did that of Throckmorton and Norris. 

When we pass from sources to authorities the list of notable 
works is even longer. La Ferriere's Le XVP siecle et les Valois 
—the fruit of researches in the Record Office in London — appeared 
in 1879; M. Forneron's Histoire de Philippe II (4 vols.) was 
published in 1887, and is even more valuable than his earlier 
Histoire des dues de Guise (1877). Besides these, in the decade of 
the 8o's, are Durier's Les Huguenots en Bigorre (18S4); Com- 
munay's Les Huguenots dans le Beam et la Navarre (1886); Let- 
tenhove's Les Huguenots et les Gueux (1885) ; the baron de Ruble's 
Le traite de Cateau-Cambresis (1889), and the abbe Marchand's 
Charles de Cosse, Comte de Brissac (1889). M. de Crue's notable 
Anne, due de Montmorency appeared in the same year and his 
no less scholarly Le parti des politiques au lendemain de Saint Bar- 
thelemy three years later. M. Marlet's Le comte de Montgomery 
was published in 1890; M. Georges Weill's Les theories sur le 
pouvoir royal en France pendant les guerres de religion, in 1891; 
M. Henri Hauser's Frangois de La None in 1892; M. Bernard de 
Lacombe's Catherine de Medicis entre Guise et Conde in 1899, and, 
most recently of all, M. Courteault's Blaise de Montluc (1908). 



PREFACE ix 

Many contributions in the Revue historique, the Revue des questions 
historiques, the English Historical Review, the Revue d'histoire 
diplomatique, the Revue des deux mondes, and one article in the 
American Historical Review, January, 1903, by M. Hauser, "The 
Reformation and the Popular Classes in the Sixteenth Century," 
are equally valuable, as the notes will show. I have also consulted 
many articles in the proceedings of various local or provincial 
historical societies, as the Societe de Paris et de ITle de France; 
the Societe de I'histoire de Normandie, the Societe d'histoire et 
d'archeologie de Geneve, etc., and the admirable series known 
as the Bulletin de la Societe d protestantisme frangais, which is a 
mine of historical lore. 

While the present work falls in the epoch of the French Refor- 
mation, no attempt has been made to treat that subject in so far 
as the Reformation is assumed primarily to have been a religious 
manifestation. Doctrine, save when it involved polity, has been 
ignored. But into the political, diplomatic, and economic 
activities of the period I have tried to go at some length. As to the 
last feature, it is not too much to say that our interpretation of 
the sixteenth century has been profoundly changed within the last! 
twenty years by the progress made in economic history. Such| 
works as Weiss's La chamhre ardente and Hauser's Ouvriers du 
temps passe have revolutionized the treatment of this subject. 

Such an interpretation is merely a reflection of our own present- 
day interest in economic and social problems. In this particular 
it is the writer's belief that he is the first to present some of the 
results of recent research into the economic history of sixteenth- 
century France to English readers. My indebtedness to M. 
Hauser is especially great for the help and suggestion he has given 
me in the matter of industrial history. But I have tried to widen 
the subject and attempted to show the bearing of changes in the 
agricultural regime, the influence of the failure of crops owing to 
adverse weather conditions, and the disintegration of society as 
the result of incessant war and the plague, upon the progress of 
the Huguenot movement. In an agricultural country like France 
in the sixteenth century, the distress of the provinces through the 



X PREFACE 

failure of the harvests was sometimes nearly universal, and the 
retroactive effect of such conditions in promoting popular dis- 
content had a marked influence upon the religious and pohtical 
issues. 

It has been pointed out that "the religious wars of France 
furnish the most complete instance of the constant intersection 
of native and foreign influences."' The bearing of the Huguenot 
movement upon Spanish and Dutch history was intimate and 
marked, and this I have also attempted to set forth. In so doing 
the fact that has impressed me most of all is the development and 
activity of the provincial Catholic leagues and their close connection 
with Spain's great Catholic machine in France, the Holy League. 

The history of the Holy League in France is usually represented 
as having extended from 1576 to 1594. This time was the period 
of its greatest activity and of its greatest power. But institutions 
do not spring to life full armed in a moment, like Athene from the 
head of Zeus. "The roots of the present lie deep in the past," 
as Bishop Stubbs observed. Institutions are a growth, a develop- 
ment. The Holy League w^as a movement of slow growth and 
development, although it has not been thus represented, and re- 
sulted from the combination of various acts and forces — apolitical, 
diplomatic, religious, economic, social, even psychological — work- 
ing simultaneously both within and without France during the 
civil wars. I have tried to set forth the nature and extent of these 
forces; to show how they originated; how they operated; and 
how they ultimately were combined to form the Holy League. 
Certain individual features of the history here covered have been 
treated in an isolated way by some writers. The late baron de 
Ruble and M. Forneron have disclosed the treasonable negotia- 
tions of Montluc with Philip II. M. Bouille and more recently 
M. Forneron have followed the tortuous thread of the cardinal 
of Lorraine's secret negotiations with Spain. Various historians, 
chiefly in provincial histories or biographies like Pingaud's Les 
Saulx-Tavannes, have noticed the local work of some of the 
provincial Catholic associations. But the relation of all these 

I The Wars of Religion ("The Cambridge Modern History," Preface). 



PREFACE XI 

various movements, one to the other, and their ultimate fusion 
into a single united movement has not yet been fully brought out. 
What was the number and form of organization of these local 
Catholic leagues ? What influenced their combination ? What 
bearing did they have upon the course of Montluc and the cardinal 
of Lorraine ? Or upon Philip II's policy ? How did the great 
feud between the Guises and the Montmorencys influence the 
formation of the Holy League and its hostile counterpart — the 
Association of the Huguenots and the Politiques ? These ques- 
tions I have tried to answer and in so doing two or three new 
facts have been brought to light. For example, an undiscovered 
link in the history of the Guises' early secret intercourse with Philip 
II has been found in the conduct of L'Aubespine, the French 
ambassador in Spain in 1561; the treasonable course of the car- 
dinal of Lorraine, it is shown, began in 1565 instead of 1566, a 
fact which makes the petty conflict known as the "Cardinal's 
War" of new importance; the history of the Catholic associations 
in the provinces, hitherto isolated in many separate volumes, has 
been woven into the whole and some new information established 
regarding them.' 

The notes, it is hoped, will sufficiently indicate the sources 
used and enable the reader to test the treatment of the 
subject, or guide him to sources by which he may form his own 
judgment if desired. 

In the matter of maps, the very complete apparatus of maps in 
Mr. Whitehead's Gas par d de Coligny, Admiral of France, has 
greatly lightened my task, and I express my cordial thanks 
to Mr. Whitehead and Messrs. Methuen & Co., his publishers, 
for permission to reproduce those in that work. My thanks are 
also due to M. Ch. de Coynart and MM. Firmin Didot et Cie for 
permission to reproduce the map illustrating the battle of Dreux 
from the late Commandant de Coynart's work entitled UAnnee 
1562 et la hataUle de Dreux; and to M. Steph. C. Gigon, author 
of La hataille de Jarnac et la campagne de ij6g en Angoumois, for 

I In the appendix I have published the constitution of two of these provincial 
leagues hitherto unknown. 



xii PREFACE 

permission to use his two charts of the battle of Jarnac. Those 
illustrating the Tour of the Provinces in 1564-66, the march of the 
duke of Alva and Montgomery's great raid in Gascony are my own. 
Some lesser maps and illustrations are from old prints which I 
have gathered together, in the course of years, except that illus- 
trating the siege of Ha vre-de- Grace and the large picture of the 
battle of St. Denis, which have been photographed from the 
originals in the Record Ofhce. 

During the preparation of this volume, which has entailed 
two prolonged visits to Paris and other parts of France, and to 
London, I have become the debtor to many persons. Among 
those of whose courtesy and assistance I would make special 
acknowledgment are the following: His Excellency, M. Jean- 
Jules Jusserand, French ambassador at Washington; M. Henri 
Vignaud, charge d'affaires of the American legation in Paris; 
MM. Charles de la Ronciere and Viennot of the Bibhotheque 
Nationale; MM. Le Grand and Viard of the Archives Nationales, 
where I chiefly worked in the K. Collection. At the Record Office, 
Mr. Hubert Hall and his assistant, Miss Mary Trice Martin, were 
unfaihng in the aid given me. For the transcript of the "Discorso 
sopra gli humori del Regno di Francia," from the Barberini Library 
in Rome, I am indebted to P. Franz Ehrle, prefect of the Vatican 
archives. I also hold in grateful memory the friendship and 
assistance of the late Woodbury Lowery, author of The Spanish 
Settlements within the Present Limits of the United States: Florida 
(1562-74), New York, 1905, with whom I was a fellow worker 
at the Archives Nationales in the spring and early summer of 
1903. 

Finally, I owe much to the suggestive criticism of my friend and 
colleague, Professor Ferdinand Schevill, and my friends. Professor 
Herbert Darling Foster, of Dartmouth College, and Professor 
Roger B. Merriman, of Harvard University, each of whom has 
read much of the manuscript. 

James Westfall Thompson 

The University of Chicago 
January 1909 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

List of Maps and Plates xv 

CHAPTER 

I. The Beginning of the Huguenot Revolt. The Con- 
spiracy OF Amboise I 

II. Catherine de Medici between Guise and Conde. Pro- 
ject of a National Council 40 

III. The States-General of Orleans 69 

IV. The Formation of the Triumvirate 91 

V. The Colloquy of Poissy. The Estates of Pontoise. 

The Edict of January, 1562 106 

VI. The First Civil War. The Massacre of Vassy (March 

I, 1562). The Siege of Rouen 131 

VII. The First Civil War (Con/wwec/) . The Battle of Dreux 
(December 19, 1562). The Peace of Amboise (March 19, 

1563) 172 

VIII. The War with England. The Peace of Troyes 

(1563-64) 198 

IX. Early Local and Provincial Catholic Leagues . . 206 
X. The Tour of the Provinces. The Bayonne Episode . 232 
XL The Tour of the Provinces {Continued) . The Influence 
OF THE Revolt of the Netherlands upon France. The 

Affair of Meaux 283 

XII. The Second Civil War (1567-68) 326 

XIII. The Third Civil War (1568). New Catholic Leagues. 

The Battle of Jarnac 349 

XIV. The Third Civil War {Contimicd). The Peace of St. 
Germain 378 

XV. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew 422 

XVI. The Fourth Civil War 454 

XVII. The Last Days of Charles IX. The Conspiracy of the 

Politiques 469 

XVIII. Henry III and the Politiques. The Peace of Monsieur 

(1576) 486 

Genealogical Tables .525 

Appendices 529 

Index 



LIST OF MAPS AND PLATES 



View of Paris 



Frontispiece 



Huguenot March to Orleans, March 2 9- April 2, 1562 . 

Campaign of Dreux, November to December, 1562 .... 

Battle of Dreux, according to Commandant de Coynart 

Sketch Map of the Fortifications of Havre -de -Grace . 

The Tour of the Provinces, 1564-66 

March of the Duke of Alva through Savoy, Franche Comte, 
AND Lorraine 

Execution of Egmont and Hoorne in the Market Square at 
Brussels 



FACING PACE 

180 
181 
202 
232 



308 



327 
328 



Paris and Its Faubourgs in the Sixteenth Century 

Blockade of Paris by the Huguenots, October-November, 1567 

Huguenot March to Pont-a-Mousson after the Battle of St. 

Denis 329 

The Battle of St. Denis between pp. 332, ^2)3 '•'' 

Autumn Campaign of 1568 . 368 ^ 

Croquis du Theatre de la Guerrf; pour la Periode du 24 

Fevrier au 13 Mars 1569, according to M. S. C. Gigon . . 376 '^ 

Bataille de Jarnac, according to M. S. C. Gigon . . . . 377 

Campaign of the Summer and Autumn of 1569 380 - 



Poitiers in the Sixteenth Century 

Plan of the Fortress of Navarrens Made by Juan Martinez 
Descurra, a Spanish Spy 

Voyage of the Princes after the Battle of Moncontour; Mont- 
gomery's Itinerary in Bigorre and Gascony; Union of 

COLIGNY AND MONTGOMERY IN DECEMBER, 1569, AT PORT StE. 

Marie 

The Massacre of St. Bartholomew .... 
Plan de la Rochelle en 1572 ..... 
Letter of Henry III of France to the Duke of Savoy 
Letter of Henry III to the Swiss Cantons 
Map of France Showing Provinces .... 



386 



402 >■' 
422 ^ 

458 V 

484 -. 

485 ' 

602 



CHAPTER I 

THE BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT. THE CON- 
SPIRACY OF AMBOISE 

The last day of June, 1559, was a gala day in Paris. The 
marriages of Phihp II of Spain with Elizabeth of France, daughter 
of King Henry II and Catherine de Medici, and that of the French 
King's sister, Marguerite with Emanuel Phihbert, duke of Savoy, 
were to be celebrated. But "the torches of joy became funeral 
tapers'" before nightfall, for Henry II was mortally wounded in 
the tournament given in honor of the occasion.^ It was the rule 
that challengers, in this case the King, should run three courses 
and their opponents one. The third contestant of the King had 
been Gabriel, sieur de Lorges, better known as the count of 
Montgomery, captain of the Scotch Guard,^ a young man, "grand 
et roidde," whom Henry rechallenged because his pride was hurt 
that he had not better kept his seat in the saddle in the first running. 
Montgomery tried to refuse, but the King silenced his objections 

1 Mem. de Tavannes, 239. 

2 The constable Montmorency, in a letter to Queen Elizabeth dated June 30, 
' 1559, says tbat the accident happened "yesterday," i. e., June 29. — C. S . P. Eng. 

For., No. 698. Almost all the sources, however, give June 30. Cf. Castelnau, 
Book I, chap. i. Throckmorton gives June 30. See p. 3, note i. 

3 The origin of the Scotch Guard goes back to the Hundred Years' War. In 
1420, five years after the battle of Agincourt, when Henry V was in possession of 
all of northern France, the dauphin, Charles VII, sent the count of Vendome to 
Scotland to ask for assistance in virtue of the ancient league between the two 
nations. In 1421 a body of 1,000 Scots arrived in France under the earl of Buchan. 
They fought at Bauge in Anjou in that year, but were almost all destroyed in 1424 
in the furious battle of Verneuil. The remnant, in honor of their services, became 
the king's own guard. See Skene, The Booh of Pluscarden, II, xix-xxi, xxvi-xxix; 
Houston, L'Escosse jrangois (Discours des alliances commencees depuis I'an sept 
cents septante, et continuees jusques a present, entre les couronnes de France et 
d'Escosse), Paris, 1608; Forbes Leith, The Scots Men-at-Arms and Life Guards 
in France, from Their Formation until Their Final Dissolution, 2 vols., 1882. 
The Guard consisted of the principal captain, the lieutenant, and the ensign, 
the marechal-de-loges, three commis, eighty archers of the guard, twenty-four 
archers of the corps; the pay of whom amounted annually to 51,800 francs, or 
6,475 pounds sterling. — C. S. P. For., No. 544, December, 1559. 



2 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

with a command and reluctantly' Montgomery resumed his place. 
But this time the Scotch guardsman failed to cast away the trunk 
of the splintered lance as he should have done at the moment of 




MONTGOMERY IN TOURNAMENT COSTUME 
(Bib. Nat., Estampes, Hisl. de France, reg. Q. b. 19) 

the shock, and the fatal accident followed. The jagged point 
crashed through the King's visor into the right eye.^ For a minute 

1 Claude Haton, whose Catholic prejudice was strong, believed this reluctance 
to be feigned (Memoires, I, 107). 

2 D'Aubigne, Book II, chap, xiv, says the blow raised the King's visor, and 
that the end of the lance, which was bound with a morne, or ring, to dull the point, 
crashed through the helmet like a bludgeon. Tavannes, chap, xiv, says that the 
King had failed to take the precaution to fasten his visor down. 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 3 

Henry reeled in his saddle, but by throwing his arms around the 
neck of his horse, managed to keep his seat. The King's armor 
was stripped from him at once and "a sphnt taken out of good 
bigness."' He moved neither hand nor foot, and lay as if be- 
numbed or paralyzed, ^^ and so was carried to his chamber in the 
Tournelles,3 entrance being denied to all save physicians, apothe- 
caries, and those valets-de-chambre who were on duty. None 
were permitted for a great distance to come near until late in the 
day, when the duke of Alva, who was to be proxy for his sovereign 
at the marriage, the duke of Savoy, the prince of Orange, the car- 
dinal of Lorraine, and the constable were admitted. ^ 

After the first moment of consternation was past, it was thought 
that the King would recover, though losing the sight of his eye,-' 
since on the fourth day Henry recovered his senses and his fever 
was abated. Meanwhile five or six of the ablest physicians in 
France had been diligently experimenting upon the heads of four 
criminals who were decapitated for the purpose in the Conciergerie 
and the prisons of the Chatelet. On the eighth day VesaHus, 
Philip II' s physician, who had long been with the emperor Charles 
V, and who enjoyed a European reputation, arrived and took 
special charge of the royal patient.^ In the interval of conscious- 
ness Henry commanded that the interrupted marriages be solem- 
nized. Before they were celebrated the King had lost the use of 

1 Throckmorton to the Lords in Council, C. S. P. For., June 30, 1559. 

2 D'Aubigne, loc. cit. La Place, 20, says that the King spoke to the cardinal of 
Lorraine. De Thou, Book II, 67/!, on the authority of Brantome, doubts it. 

3 The Palais des Tournelles stood in the present Place Royale. It was torn 
down in 1575. 

4 Throckmorton, loc. cit. 

5 The constable Montmorency to Queen Elizabeth, C. S. P. For., No. 898, 
June 30, 1559. Throckmorton, ibid., No. 928, July 4, "doubted the King would 
lose his eye." 

6 C. S. P. For., No. 950, July 8, 1559- De Ruble, Antoine de Bourbon et 
Jeanne d'Albret I, 432, has published Vesalius' official report. Henry II had a 
body-physician who also enjoyed a European reputation. This was Fernal. He 
was the author of a Latin work upon pathology which was translated into French 
in 1660 under the title: La pathologic de Jean Fernal, premier medicin de Henry II, 
roy de France, ouvrage tres-utile a tons ceux qui s'appliquent a la connoissance du 
corps humain. 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



speech and lapsed into unconsciousness, and on the morrow of 
the marriages he died (July lo, 1559). On August 13 the corpse 
was interred at St. Denis.' When the ceremony was ended the 
king of arms stood up, and after twice pronouncing the words 
"Le roi est mort," he turned around toward the assembly, and 
the third time cried out: ''Vive le roi, tres-chretien Francois le 




DEATHBED OF HENRY II 



A. Catherine de Medici 

B. Cardinal of Lorraine 

C. Constable Montmorency 



D. Couriers 

E. Courtiers 

F. Physicians 



deuzieme de ce nom, par la grace de Dieu, roi de France." There- 
upon the trumpets sounded and the interment was ended. ^ A 
month later, on September 18, Francis II was crowned at Rheims. 
Already Montgomery had been deprived of the captaincy of the 
Scotch Guard and his post given to "a mere Frenchman," much 
to the indignation of the members of the Guard. ^ 

1 There is an account of the funeral in Arch, cur., Ill, 309-48. The MS 
account of the funeral expenses is in the Phillipps Collection, 2,995. Compare 
Galembert, Funerailles du roy Henri II, Roole des parties et somme de deniers 
pour le )aict des dits obseques et pompes funebres. Public avec une introduction. 
Paris, Fontaine, 1869. 

2 See the description of Throckmorton, written to Queen Elizabeth, C. S. P. 
For., No. 1,190, August 15, 1559. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 1,242, August 25, 1559. 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 5 

The reign of Henry II had not been a popular one. He had 
neither the mind nor the appHcation necessary in pubhc affairs.' 
On the very day of the accident the Enghsh ambassador wrote 
to Cecil: " It is a marvel to see how the noblemen, gentlemen, and 
ladies do lament this misfortune, and contrary-wise, how the 
townsmen and people do rejoice."^ The wars of Henry II in 
Italy and in the Low Countries had drained France of blood and 
treasure, so that the purses of the people were depleted by an infinity 
of exactions and confiscations; offices and benefices had been 
bartered, even those of justice, and to make the feeling of the 
people worse, Henry II was prodigal to his favorites.^ Finally 
the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (1559) was regarded as not less 
disadvantageous than dishonorable. ^ 

Meanwhile much politics had been in progress.^ The new 
king was not yet sixteen years of age.^ He was of frail health and 
insignificant intellect, being quite unlike his wife, the beautiful 
and brilliant Mary Stuart, who was a niece of the Guises, Francis, 
duke of Guise, and his brother Charles, cardinal of Lorraine, who 
had been in no small favor under Henry 11. Even in the king's 
lifetime the ambition of the Guises had been a thing of wonderm ent 

1 Rel. ven., T, 195. "De fort petit sens," says La Planche, 202. 

2 Throckmorton to Cecil, June 30, 1559, C. S. P. For., 899. 

3 And yet the evil nature of Henry II's reign may be exaggerated. An ex- 
tended and critical history of his reign is still to be written. Claude Haton, no 
mean observer of economic conditions says: "En ce temps et par tout le regne du 
dit feu roy, faisoit bon vivre en France, et estoient toutes denrees et marchandises 
a bon marche, excepte le grain et le vin, qui encherissoient certaines annees plus 
que d'aultres, selon la sterilite, et toutesfois esdittes treize annees de son regne 
n'ont este que trois ans de cherte de grain et de vin, et n'a valu le ble froment, en la 
pluschere des dittes trois annees, que 14 et 15. s. t. le bichet (a la mesure de Provins), 
et les aultres grains au prix le prix, et ne duroit telle cherte que trois moys pour le 
plus." A valuable table of prices of food stuffs follows. — Claude Haton, I, 112, 113. 

4 See De Ruble, "Le traite de Cateau-Cambresis," Revue d'hist. diplomatique 
(1887), 385, and the more extensive work (1889) with the same title by this author. 

5 On the general situation between the wounding and the death of Henry II 
see Neg. Tosc, III, 400. 

6 Castelnau, Book I, chap. i. He was sixteen on January 19, 1560. Cf. 
Castan, "La naissance des enfans du roi Henri de Valois," Revue des savants, 6™^ 
ser., III. 



6 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

and his unexpected death opened before them the prospect of new 
and prolonged power. Henry II had scarcely closed his eyes 
when the duke of Guise and the cardinal of Lorraine took posses- 
sion of the person of Francis II and conducted him to the Louvre, 
in company with the queen-mother, ignoring the princes of the 
blood, the marshals, the admiral of France, and "many Knights 
of the Order, or grand seigneurs who were not of their retinue." 
There they deliberated without permitting anyone to approach, 
still less to speak to the King except in the presence of one of them. 
Francis II gave out that his uncles were to manage his affairs.^ 
In order to give color to this assumption of authority, as if their 
intention was to restore everything to good estate again, the Guises 
recalled the chancellor Olivier, who had been driven from office 
by Diane de Poitiers, Henry II's mistress.^ 

Even before these events the Guises had shown their hand, for 
on the day of Henry II's decease the constable, the cardinal Cha- 
tillon and his brother, the admiral Coligny, had been appointed 
to attend upon the royal corse at the Tournelles, by which maneu- 
ver they were excluded from all active work and the way was 
cleared for the unhampered rule of the King's uncles. Rumor 
prevailed that D'Andelot, the third of the famous Chatillon 
brothers, was to be dismissed from the command of the footmen 
and the place be given to the count de Rochefoucauld. ^ Before 
the end of the month the duke of Guise was given charge of the 
war office and the cardinal of Lorraine that of finance and matters 

j: Throckmorton to the queen, July i8, 1559, C. S. P. For., No. 1,009. This 
information was given to the council and a deputation of the Parlement, but no 
official proclamation was made. — D'Aubigne, I, 243, n. i. 

2 Claude Haton, I, 106; Tavannes, 245. The deposed beauty surrendered 
the keys of the royal cabinets and some bags of precious jewels to the new queen, 
La Planche, 204; Baschet, 494, dispatch of the Venetian ambassador, July 12, 1559. 
Cf. Guiffrey, Lettres inedites de Diane de Poitiers, 1866; Imbart de St. Amand, 
Revue des deux mondes, August 15, 1866, p. 984. For light upon her extravagance 
see Chevalier, Archives royales de Chenonceau: Cotnptes des recettes et despences 
jaites en la Chastellenie de Chenonceau, par Diane de Poitiers, dtcchesse de Valen- 
tinois, dame de Chenonceau et autres lieux (Techener, 1864). Hay, Diane de Poitiers, 
la grande seneschale de Normandie, duchesse de Valentinois, is a sumptuously 
illustrated history. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 1,024, July 19, 1559- 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 7 

of state. ^ At the same time, on various pretexts, the princes of 
the blood were sent away,^ the prince of Conde to Flanders, osten- 
sibly to confer with Philip II regarding the peace of Cateau-Cam- 
bresis,3 the prince of La Roche-sur-Yon and the cardinal Bour- 
bon to conduct Elizabeth of France into Spain, so that by Novem- 
ber " there remained no more princes with the King save those of 
Guise," '^ who had influential agents in the two marshals, St, Andre^ 
and Brissac.^ 

1 Castelnau, Book I, chap, ii; C. S. P. For., No. 972, July 11, 1559; No. 1,080, 
July 27, 1559. 

2 La Planche, 208; Claude Haton, I, 108; Pauiin Paris, Negoclations, 108, 
note. 

3 Tavannes, 245; Paris, Negoclations relatives au regne de Frangois II, 61, 76, 
80, 83, 86; La Planche, 207; C. S. P. For., No. 1,121, August 4, 1559; ibid., August 
I, 1559, No. 1,101, Throckmorton to the Queen: "The French .... are in 
fear because of the king of Spain, who has not as yet restored S. Quentin's, Ham nor 
Chastelet, the Spanish garrisons of which daily make courses into the country 
as far as Noyon, about which the governor of Compegny has written to the King, 
adding that it were as good to have war as such a peace." C. S. P. For., July 13, 
1559, No. 985, Throckmorton to the Queen: "It is thought that the treaty al- 
ready made is void by the French King's death; .... that the king of Spain, 
seeing his advantage and knowing the state of France better than he did when he 
made that peace, will either make new demands, or constrain France to do as he 
will have them, who would be loath to break with him again." 

4 Tavannes, op. cit. 

s Jacques d'Alban de St. Andre, born in the Lyonnais, marshal 1547, favorite 
of Henry II. He was taken prisoner at the battle of St. Quentin. After the death 
of Henry II, fearing prosecution for his enormous stealings in office, he became the 
tool of the Guises. See La Planche, 205, 206; Livre des marchands, 438, 439; and 
especially Boyvin du Villars, 904 ff., on his administration in Provence. 

•5 Brissac was governor of Piedmont under Henry II, where he sustained the 
interests of France so energetically that Philip hated him. The Guises made 
great efforts to attach him to their party, with the hope of playing him against the 
Bourbons and Montmorencys (Paris, Negociations, 73, note). After the peace of 
Cateau-Cambresis, the fortresses of the duke of Savoy were dismantled, to the 
intense anger of the latter. Cf. Fillon Collection, 2,654: Letter of July 16, 1560, 
to the duchess of Mantua, complaining that the people of Caluz have revolted 
against the authority of the marshal Brissac. This hard feeling probably explains 
Brissac's transfer to the government of Picardy, in January, 1560, to the chagrin 
of the prince of Conde, who asked for the place (Varillas, Hist, de Frangois II, 
II, 35; De Thou, Book XXV, 518) after the marriage of Emanuel Philibert 
to the sister of Henry II. See Marchand, Charles I de Cosse, comte de Brissac, 
Paris, 1889, chap. xvi. 



8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Much depended upon the attitude of Antoine of Bourbon, sieur 
de Vendome and king of Navarre, who was first prince of the blood, 
and the person to whom the direction of affairs would naturally 
fall. At the time of Henry II's death he was in Beam, whither 
La Mare, the King's valet-de-chambre, was sent to notify him," 
the Guises having shrewdly arranged to have the ground cleared 
of the opposition of the Bourbons and Chatillons when he should 
arrive.^ 

But not all the opposition had been overcome. While Henry II 
had been generous to the Guises, he had been even fonder of the 
constable Montmorency, a bluff, hearty man of war, who became 
the royal favorite upon the fall of the admiral Hennebault, after 
the death of Francis I.^ Montmorency was the uncle of the three 
Chatillons, Odet, the cardinal-bishop of Beauvais, Gaspard, the 
admiral Cohgny, and Francois de Chatillon, sieur d'Andelot, 
and the King was openly accused of having made a disadvanta- 
geous peace in order to protect the constable and secure the ran- 
som of Coligny, who was captured at the battle of St. Quentin.^ In 
order to prevent the constable and the king of Navarre from meeting 
one another and concerting an arrangement, the Guises contrived 
Montmorency's summary dismissal from court, ^ Francis II at 
their instigation sending him word to retire at once (August 15), 
The old war-dog^ took the affront gallantly, and hke an artful 

1 La Place, 26. 

2 C. S. P. For., Nos. 1,121, 1,149, August 4 and August 8, 1559. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 972, July 11, 1559. 

4 Tavannes, 244. In Spain it was the prevailing belief that France had been 
compelled to make the peace of Cateau-Cambresis more through the troubles 
caused by the affairs of religion than from any other necessity; cf. C. S. P. Ven., 

,No. 57, 1559. This suspicion is confirmed by Tavannes, who says that the set- 
tlement of matters still pending under the terms of the treaty was hastened by 
the Guises through knowledge that the state of affairs in France was exceed- 
ingly unsatisfactory to many of the nobles and fear that their power would be 
openly rebelled against (Tavannes, 245; C. S. P. For., No. 590, January 18, 1560, 
and No. 26, October 5, 1559). 

5 The pretext was Montmorency's complaint because his son Damville was 
• not given the government of Provence, which St. Andre had held (i?e/. ven., I, 435; 

cf. Neg. Tosc, III, 401). 

6 "Vieil routier." — La Planche, 207. 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 9 

courtier said that he was glad to be reheved of active duties on 
account of his age.' In the absence of the princes of the blood, 
the opposition to the Guises gathered around Montmorency and 
the Chatillons, the faction for a short time taking its name from 
the constable's title, being known as "connestablistes."^ The 
political line of division was drawn very sharply, and the growing 
influence of Huguenot teachings gave it a religious accentuation 
as well. The less significant portion of the noblesse was inclined 
to repose after the long wars and was indifferent to politics; but 
the upper nobility were eager partisans, either having hopes of 
preferment or being, in principle, opposed both to the usurpation 
and the religious intolerance of the Guises. ^ 

As to the clergy, its members almost without exception were 
supporters of the faith and the government of the Guises. The 
mass of the people as yet were disregarded by both factions, but 
were soon to come forward into prominence for financial and 
other reasons.4 Henry II, unlike his father, had never suffered 
French Protestantism to flourish, ^ but, on the contrary, had under- 

1 "Le connestable .... resigna bien d'estat de grand-maistre entre les 
mains du roy, mais purement et simplement, et non en faveur du diet de Guyse, 
declarant assez qu'il ne cedoit en rien a son adversaire." — La Planche, 216. Cf. 
D'Aubigne, I, 245, Book II, chap, xiv; Rel. ven., I, 393; Tavannes, 245; Castle- 
nau, Book I, chap, ii; Baschet, La diplomatic venetienne, 495. La Place, 26, is 
in error. An attempt was made to soften Montmorency's fall by making his 
eldest son a marshal of France; Tavannes, 245; C. S. P. For., No. 376, December 
5. 1559- 

2 La Planche, 203. 

3 Castelnau, Book I, chap. iii. 

4 See the interesting analysis of public opinion by La Planche, 203. On 
p. 208 he gives a highly drawn picture of the venality of the parlements, whose 
"ancienne splendeur estoit desja esvannoye peu a peu," while they were fre- 
quented by "les soliciteurs des courtisans, et les advocats favoris des grands," 
in whose precincts justice was not possible for simple, honest folk. He is as bitter 
in speaking of the conseil des affaires and the conseil prive, but it must be remem- 
bered that the author was a Protestant and imbued with hatred against the gov- 
ernment because of its persecution of the Huguenots. See Tavannes' (p. 243) 
eulogy of the French bar which is nearer the truth. 

s For Henry II's policy toward Protestantism see De Crue, Anne de Mont- 
morency, 244-48; Weiss, La chambre ardente, Introd.; Hauser, "De Thumanisme 
et de la reforme en France," Rev. hist., LXIV (1897), 258, minimizes the intel- 
lectual causes of the French Reformation. 



lO THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

taken rigorous repressive measures. The edicts of Paris (1549), 
of Fontainebleau (1550), and of Chateaubriand (1551), made the 
Huguenots' subject to both secular and ecclesiastical tribunals. 

I The origin of this word has been much discussed. In the early period of the 
Reformation in France, all religious schismatics save the Vaudois, whose historical 
identity was different and familiar, were called "Lutherans." The Venetian 
ambassador so characterized the French Protestants in a dispatch to the signory in 
1558 {Relazione de Giovanni Sorano, ed. Alberi, I, 2, 409). Boyvin du Villars 
(Book XII, 204) employs this same term in 1560. 

The etymology of the word " Huguenot," most commonly ace epted is that which 
derives it from the German word Eidgenossen (confederacy) which designated the 
Swiss Confederates (see Papier s d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle,Vll, 660). The word 
in Geneva was naturally not German but French or Savoyard. It is variously 
spelled — Eydgenots, Eygenots, Eyguenots. But this derivation, though the best 
supported, is opposed by the eminent philologist, Littre. Grandmaison, Bulletin 
Soc. hist. prot. frang., LI (January, 1902), argues against the German origin of 
the word and gives examples of its appearance as a French surname from the 
fourteenth century onward. But how it came to be applied to the French Protes- 
tants he is unable to say. Cf. Weiss: "La derivation du nom Huguenot," Bull. Soc. 
hist. prot. frang., XLVIII, 12 (December, 1898). A note by A. Mazel states 
that in Languedoc the word was pronounced "Duganau," which he conjectures to 
be a diminutive of "Fugou," the great owl. If this is so, the origin of the word is 
akin to that of "Chouan" in the French Revolution. The earliest use of the word 
"Huguenot" in Languedoc is in Devic and Vaisette, Histoire du Languedoc, XI, 
342. It undoubtedly was a term of reproach, ihid., XI, 374, note; cf. Claude 
Haton, I, 121. Without attempting to pronounce upon the origin of the word, I 
subjoin some allusions which I have come upon. Castelnau, Book II, chap, vii, 
says: " . . . . qui depuis s'appelerent huguenots en France, dont I'etymologie 
fut prise a la conjuration d'Amboise, lors que ceux qui devoient presenter la 
requeste, comme eperdus de crainte, fuyoient de tous costes. Quelques femmes 
des villages dirent que c'estoient pauvres gens, qui ne valloient pas des huguenots, 
qui estoient une forte petite monnoye, encore pire que des mailles, du temps de 
Hugues Capet d'ou vint en usage que par moquerie Ton les appelloit huguenots." 
Henri Estienne and La Place, 34, say the word arose from the circumstance that 
the Calvinists of Tours used to go outside of the Porte du roy Huguon to worship. 
La Planche's derivation is a study in folklore (p. 262, col. i). 

The Venetian ambassador wrote in 1563: "In quel tempo medesimo fu tra 
questi principalmente, che cercorno di seminar la false dottrina un predicator della 
regina di Navarra, madre del presente re di Navarra, nominate Ugo, il quale alieno 
prima 1' animo di quella regina dalla religion cattolica, e poi cerco d' alienare e di 
corromper, come face, infiniti altri uomini e donne delli piu grandi." — Rel. ven., II, 
50. A unique explanation, which I have not found noticed elsewhere is preserved 
by Jean de Gaufreton, Chronique hordelaise (1877), I, 92: "En cette annee les 
catholiques commencerent d'appeller les Lutheriens et protestants 'Huguenots,' 
et les autres nomerent les catholicques papistes a cause, qu'ils tenoyent le parti du 
pape, et qu'ils soustenoyent son authorite. Mais la raison pourquoy les Lutheriens 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUEONT REVOLT 1 1 

The Protestant issue was both a rehgious and a political one, 
for to many men it seemed impossible to alter the religious beliefs 
of the time without destruction of the state. Francis I recognized 
this state of things in the rhymed aphorism : 

Un roi 

Une loi 

Une foi 
and his son rigidly sustained the dictum. The Edict of Com- 
piegne, of July 24, 1557' imposed the death penalty upon those 
who publicly or secretly professed a religion other than the Catholic 
apostolic faith; the preamble declaring that "to us alone who have 
received from the hand of God the administration of the public 
affairs of our realm," clearly shows the intimate relation of the 
French state and the French church. It is significant that the 
Chamhre ardente was established to prosecute the Huguenots in 
Henry II's reign. ^ 

furent appellees Huguenots precede de ce que les princes protestants d'Allemagne 
et Lutheriens ayant envoye une solemnelle ambassade au roy, a la requete des 
Lutheriens et protestants de France pour demander libre exercice du Lutheranisme 
en son royaume, en faveur des dits Lutheriens franyais, comme le chef de cette 
ambassade voulut en sa premiere audience parler latin devant le roy, assiste des 
messieurs de son conseil, il ne, put jamais dire que les deux mots a Sf avait ' hue nos ' 
et s'arresta tout court. Despuis les courtisans appellerent les Lutheriens franjois 
'hue nos,' et en suite 'Huguenots.' " 

1 Isambert, XIII, 494. 

2 Weiss, La chamhre ardente, Paris, 1889, a study of liberty of conscience under 
Henry II, based upon about five hundred arrets rendered by the Parlement of Paris 
between May, 1547, and March, 1550. Before its creation heresy was dealt with by 
the regular courts. In Bulletin des comites historiques (1850), 173 ("Inventaire des 
lettres relatives a I'histoire de France aux archives de Bale "), there is noted a letter 
of the King written in 1552 to the effect that those who have been arrested for 
heresy at Lyons shall not be dealt with unjustly; but the King reiterates his deter- 
mination not to permit any new religious doctrine to obtain. In the very month 
before his death, in June, 1559, the edict of Ecouan prescribed the death penalty for 
all heretics, without the least limitation or restriction, and with injunctions to the 
judges not to mitigate the punishment, as they had done for some years (Castelnau, 
Book I, chap. iii). The Huguenots regarded Henry II's death as a judgment of 
God. — C. S. P. For., No. 899, June 30, 1559: "They let not openly to say the King's 
dissolute .life and his tyranny to the professors of the gospel hath procured God's 
vengeance." A letter of Diane de Poitiers in the Catalogue de la collection Tremonf, 
No. 424, proves that some of the property confiscated from the Huguenots was given 
by the King to his favorite. 



12 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Ever since the duke of Alva had been in Paris the impression 
had prevailed that Henry II and Philip II purposed to establish 
the Inquisition in France/ and that the project had been foiled 
by the French king's sudden death. The Huguenots were con- 
vinced of it and keen politicians like the prince of Orange and 
Count Egmont taxed Granvella with the purpose in 1561.^ What 
the government did do has been carefully stated by another : 

The Government largely increased the powers of the Ecclesiastical Courts, 
and, pari passu, detracted from those of the regular Law Courts called the 
Parlements. The Parlement of Paris protested not only against the infringe- 
ment of its privileges, but against conversion by persecution, and the same 
feelings existed at Rouen, where several members had to be excluded for 
heretical opinions. The introduction of the Spanish form of inquisition, under 
a bull of Paul IV, in 1557, still further exasperated the profession. The In- 
quisitors were directed to appoint diocesan tribunals, which should decide 
without appeal. The Parlement of Paris flatly refused to register the royal 
edict, and continued to receive appeals. The finale was the celebrated Wed - 
nesday meeting of the assembled chambers, the Mercuriale, where the King 
in person interfered with the constitutional freedom of speech, and ordered the 
arrest of the five members, thus giving his verdict for the ultra-Catholic minority 
of Parlement against the moderate majority. Marshal Vieilleville, himself a 
sound Catholic, strongly dissuaded this course of action. Its result was that 
one of the most influential elements of the State was not indeed brought into 
connection with Reform, but as placed in an attitude of hostility to the Govern- 
ment, and as the grievance was the consequence of the religious policy of the 
Crown, it had at all events a tendency to bring about a rapprochement between 
the Reformers and the judicial classes. ^ 

Five of the advocates of the Parlement of Paris, of whom Du Bourg 
and Du Four were the most prominent, protested against this 
action, both because of its intolerance and because they believed 
it to be a political measure, at least in part, and were put under 
arrest for this manifestation of courage. Men reasoned very differ- 
ently regarding this edict. The pohticians and intense Cathohcs 

1 Vargas, Histoire de Frangois II, 314. 

2 Granvella to Philip II, June 14, 1561 — Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Gran- 
velle, VI, 569. 

3 Armstrong, Wars of Religion in France, 4, 5. Cf. De Crue, A tine -de Mont- 
morency, 246. The establishment of the Jesuits was not approved in France 
until after the death of Henry II, owing to the resistance of the mendicant orders 
and the Sorbonne. — Claude Haton, II, 636. 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 



13 



regarded it as necessary, both to preserve the church and in order 
to suppress those seditious spirits, who, under color of religion, 
aimed to alter or subvert the government. Others, who had no 
regard either for policy or religion, likewise approved of it, not as 
tending to extirpate the Protestants, for they believed it would 
rather increase their numbers, but because they hoped to be en- 
riched by confiscations and that the King might thereby be enabled 
to pay his debts, amounting to forty-two millions, according to 




EXECUTION OF DU BOURG 
(Tortorel and Perissin) 

Castelnau, and thus restore his finances.^ The trial of the parlia- 
mentary councilors was postponed for some time on account of 
Henry II' s death, but soon afterward they were brought before 
"the bishops and Sorbonnists."^ Du Four, upon retraction, was 
suspended from office for five years ;3 three others were fined and 
ignominiously punished; but Du Bourg'^ was condemned and 
executed on December 23, 1559, in spite of the solicitations of 

1 Castelnau, Book I, chap. iii. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 950, July 8, 1559. 3 Mem. de Conde, I, 264. 

4 He had been converted by Hotman, the famous Huguenot pamphleteer. — 
Weiss, 31. 



14 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Marguerite, wife of the duke of Savoy, and the count palatine 
who wrote to the King for his hfe.^ 

At the same time the measures of the government were re- 
doubled. In November, 1559, a new edict ordained that all who 
went to conventicles, or assisted at any private assemblies, should 
be put to death, and their houses be pulled down and never rebuilt. 
By special decree the provost of the city was authorized, because 
Huguenot sessions were more frequent in Paris and its suburbs 
than elsewhere, to proclaim with the trumpet that all people who 
had information of Protestant assembhes should notify the magi- 
strates, on pain of incurring the same punishment; and promise 
of pardon and a reward of five hundred livres was to be given 
to every informer. The commissaires des quartiers of Paris were 
enjoined to be diligent in seeking "out offenders and to search 
the houses of those under suspicion from time to time using 
the archers de la ville for that purpose. Letters-patent were 
also given to the lieutenant-criminal of the Chatelet and certain 
other judges chosen by the cardinal of Lorraine to judge without 
appeal. The cures and vicars in the parishes were to excom- 
municate all those who had knowledge of Protestant doings 
and failed to report them.^ In order to discover those who were 
Calvinists, priests bore the host (corpus Domini) through the 
streets and images of the Virgin were set up at the street corners, 
and all who refused to bow the head and bend the knee in adora- 
tion were arrested. ^ Similar measures were adopted in Poitou, 
at Toulouse, and at Aix in Provence where the double enginery 
of state and church was brought to bear in the suppression of 
heresy.4 So great was the volume of judicial business as a 
result of these new measures that four criminal chambers were 
established at the end of the year, one to try offenses carrying the 
death penalty, the second for trial of those who might be con- 
demned to make amende honorable, the third to judge those who 

1 Weiss, op. cit.; Castelnau, Book I, chap. iii. La Planche, 209-12 and 235, 
236, gives an account of his suiTerings and death. The Mem. de Conde, I, 217 ff., 
contain part of the trial. 

2 Castelnau, Book I, chap, v, and especially La Planche, 220-22. 

3 La Planche, 237. 4 Ibid., 226. 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 15 

might be publicly burned, the last to punish various other offenses.' 
The saner Catholic opinion, as, for example, that of Tavannes, 
the brilliant cavalry leader, reprobated this recourse to extraordi- 
nary tribunals on the ground that the judging of criminals by 
special commissioners, who were persons chosen according to the 
passion of the ruler, was bound to be unjust or tyrannical, and 
that those counselors who were drawn from the courts of the par- 
lements to be so employed offended their consciences and mingled 
in that which did not pertain to them. Tavannes justified his con- 
tention, legally as well as morally, on the ground that the King, 
being a party in the cause could not justly change the ordinary 
judges.^ 

The assassination of Minard, vice-president of the Grand 
Chamber of the Parlement of Paris, and one of the judges, who 
was shot in his coach^ on the night of December 18, the same day 
that Du Bourg was degraded, was the protest against this order 
of things. "^ The murder was committed in such a way that the 
author of it could never be discovered, s This was followed by 
that of Julien Frene, a messenger of the Parlement, while bearing 
some papers and instructions relating to the prosecution of certain 
Protestants. These two crimes undoubtedly hardened the govern- 

1 La Place, 28. 

2 Upon the patriotism and loyalty of the French magistracy see the notable 
extract from a letter of the Spanish ambassador, April 29, 1560, in Rev. hist., 
XIV, 78. Cf. the address of M. Alfred Levesque, "Le barreau et la liberte 
sous les Valois: discours prononce a la seance d'ouverture des conferences de 
I'ordre des avocats," November 28, 1846. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 451, December 21, 1559. Carriages came into use in 
the sixteenth century, the practice being borrowed from Italy. Catherine de 
Medici was the first queen who possessed one. For interesting information on 
this subject see Burgon, Life and Times oj Sir Thomas Gresham, I, 242, 305, 
383, 486, 487; Ellis, Letters, Series II, I, 253; Strutt, Dresses, II, 90, and a paper 
in Archeologia, XX, 426 ff. 

4 Castelnau, Book I, chap, v; La Planche, 232-34. 

5 Robert Stuart, who claimed to be a relative of Mary Stuart, was suspected 
of the murder. It was he who killed the constable Montmorency at the battle of 
St. Denis in 1567. — D'Aubigne, I, 255. Another upon whom suspicion rested was 
the natural son of the cardinal of Meudon, whom Minard had persuaded to leave 
all his property to the poor. — Neg. Tosc, III, 407. 



J 



i6 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

ment^ and hastened the prosecution of Du Bourg, who was put to 
death just a week later, on December 23, and led to some new 
regulations. In order to protect the Parlement, it was commanded 
to adjourn before four o'clock, from St. Martin's Eve (November 
10) until Easter; a general police order forbade the carrying of 
any firearms whatsoever^ and in order to prevent their conceal- 
ment, the wearing of long mantles or large hunting-capes was 
forbidden. 3 

It is to be observed that the Huguenots were concerted not only 
for religious, but for political interests. The distinction was fully 
appreciated at the time, the former being called "Huguenots of 
religion" and the latter "Huguenots of state.""* The former were 
Calvinists who were resolved no longer to endure the cruelties of 
religious oppression; the latter — ^mostly nobles — ^those opposed 
to the monopoly of power enjoyed by the Guises. ^ The weight 

1 D'Aubigne, I, 255, II, chap. xvi. Two edicts were issued on December 17 
from Chambord. See Isambert, XIV, 12. 

2 La Place, 28. 3 La Planche, 209. 

4 La Place, 41; Tavannes, 241. "There be two kinds of the people whom 
the Papists term Huguenots, viz.. Huguenots of religion, and Huguenots of State. 
The one of these perceiving that the cardinal works to ruin them, and their own 
peculiar force not sufficient to withstand his malice, have shown appearance that 
they will join with the other, who seeing themselves excluded from all government, 
and those of Guise to usurp the whole authority, presently practise a firm faction 
and league between themselves, either part promising to support the other." — 
C. S. P. For., No. 2,235, May 31, 0568. 

5 Rel. ven., I, 523-25; II, 57; Davila, VI, 359. Claude I^ton emphatically 
asserts the feudal purposes of the Huguenot noblesse: "Las grand seigneurs de la 
ligue condeienne et cause huguenoticque s'atendoient d'estre haults eslevez, non 
es offices royaux, mais au partage du royaume qu'ilz esperoient faire entre eux en le 
contonnant par provinces, desquelles ilz pretendoient d'estre seigneurs souverains, 
sans recognoistre roy ni aultre personne par dessus eux." — I, 291. Tavannes 
characterizes the Huguenot association in 1572 as " demi-democratique et demi- 
aristocratique" (Panth. lit., 413). The identification of Calvinism with the political 
purposes of the nobles is shown in the following letter of the cardinal de Tournon 
to King Henri II, written "De Bains de Lucques, 9 juillet 1559": "L'une des 
principal ruses de ces malheureux est de commencer, s'ils peuvent, a semer leur 
venin et mauvaise doctrine par les plus Grands, les attirer et gaigner a eux, afin de 
pouvoir apres tout plus aisement & sans punition, infecter & gaster le reste & s'aider 
a un besoin de leur force & authorite." — Ribier, II, 807. 

The cardinal Tournon and the admiral Hennebault had been trusted with the 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 17 

of evidence is increasingly in favor of the view that the causes of 
the Huguenot movement were as much if not more pohtical and 
economic than rehgious. 

It was only in the general dislocation and descBuvrement of society that 
followed the cessation of the foreign wars that the French began to realize the 

weight of the burdens which their governmental system laid upon them 

Until .... the religious sense gave a voice to the dumb discontent, social or 
political, first in the Huguenot rising and afterward in the outbreak of the 
League, there was little to show the real force of the opposition to the estab- 
lished order. ^ 

Abstractly considered, the religious Huguenots were not very 
dangerous to the state so long as they confined their activity to 
the discussion of doctrine. This could not easily be done, how- 
ever, nor did the opponents of the church so desire; for the church 
was a social and political fabric, as well as a spiritual institution, 
and to challenge or deny its spiritual sovereignty meant also to 
invalidate its social and political claims, so that the whole structure 
was compromised. Thus the issue of religion raised by the Hugue- 
nots merged imperceptibly into that of the pohtical Huguenots, 
who not only wanted to alter the foundations of belief, but to change 
the institutional order of things, and who used the religious oppo- 
sition as a means to attack the authority of the crown. The most 
active of this class were the nobles, possessed of lands or bred to 
the profession of arms, whom a species of political atavism actuated 
to endeavor to recover that feudal power which the noblesse had 
enjoyed before the powerful kings like Louis IX and Philip IV 
coerced the baronage; before the Hundred- Years' War ruined 
them; before Louis XI throttled the League of the PubHc Weal 
in 1465. The weakness of Francis II, the minority of the crown 

duties of affairs of state after the fall of the constable Montmorency in 1541. When 
Henry II came to the throne Montmorency was restored to office and Tournon fell. 
After the death of Henry II the queen mother proposed the return of Cardinal 
Tournon. The Guises at first hesitated, but soon yielded, first because the cardinal 
was the personal enemy of the constable, and second, because he was very hostile 
to the reformed religion {Rev. hist., XIV, 72, 73). 

I From an admirable article by E. Armstrong, "The Political Theory of the 
Huguenots, " Eng. Hist Rev., IV, 13 ff. Cf. Weill, Les theories sur le pouvoir royal 
en France pendant les guerres de religion, Paris, 1891. 



1 8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

under Charles IX, and, above all, the dissatisfaction of the princes 
of the blood and the old aristocracy, hke the Montmorencys, with 
the upstart pretensions and power of the Guises — these causes 
united to make the Huguenots of state a formidable poHtical 
party. Rehgion and pohtics together provoked the long series 
of civil wars whose termination was not until Henry IV brought 
peace and prosperity to France again in 1598.' 

It is necessary to picture the state of France at this time. The 
French were not essentially an industrial or commercial nation 
in the sixteenth century. France had almost no maritime power 
and its external commerce was not great. The great majority 
of the French people was composed of peasants, small proprietors, 
artisans, and officials. If we analyze city society, we find first 
some artisans and small merchants — ^the bourgeois and the gens- 
de-rohe forming the upper class. The towns had long since ceased 
to govern themselves. Society was aristocratic and controlled 
by the clergy and nobility. The upper clergy was very rich. 
High prelates were all grand seigneurs, while the lower clergy was 
very dependent. Monks abounded in the towns, and the curates 
possessed a certain influence. The most powerful class was the 
nobles, seigneurs, and gentlemen, who possessed a great portion 
of the rural properties, and still had fortified castles. They were 
wholly employed either at court or in war, or held appointments 
as governors of provinces and captains of strongholds. The 
nobles alone constituted the regular companies of cavalry, that 
is to say, the dominant element of the army. This class was there- 
fore of influence in the state and the most material force in society. 

The government was an absolute monarchy. The king was 
theoretically uncontested master and obeyed by all; he exercised 
an arbitrary and uncontrolled power, and could decide according 
to his pleasure, with reference to taxes, laws, and affairs both of 
the state and of the church, save in matters of faith. He named 
and revoked the commissions of all the governors and acted under 
the advice of a council composed of the princes of the blood and 
favorites. But this absolute authority was still personal. The 

I See the observations of La Place, 41-45. 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 19 

king was only obeyed upon condition of giving the orders himself. 
There was no conception of an abstract kingship. If the king 
abandoned the power to a favorite, the other great personages 
of the court would refuse to obey, and declare that \he sovereign 
was a prisoner. Everything depended upon a single person. No 
one thought of resisting Francis I or Henry II because they were 
men grown at their accession. But after 1559 we find a series of 
royal infants or an indolent monarch like Henry III. Then began 
the famous rivalries between the great nobles, rivalries out of which 
were born the pohtical parties of the times, in which the Guises, 
the Montmorencys, and the famous Chatillon brothers figure so 
prominently. 

Fundamentally speaking, the aims of both classes of Huguenots 
were revolutionary, and were directed, the one against the authority 
of the mediaeval church, the other against the authority of the 
French monarchy. The latter was a feudal manifestation, not 
yet republican. The republican nature of early political Hugue- 
notism has been exaggerated. There was no such feehng at all 
as nearly as 1560,' and even at the height of Huguenot activity and 
power in 1570-72, most men still felt that the state of France was 
vrayement monarchique,^ and that the structure of society and the 
genius of the people was strongly inclined to the form of govern- 
ment which eight centuries of development had evolved; that it 
was searching for false liberty by perilous methods to seek funda- 
mentally to alter the state. ^ In a word, most political Huguenots 
in 1560 were reformers, not revolutionists; the extremists were 
Calvinist zealots and those of selfish purposes who were working 
for their own ends. For in every great movement there are always 
those who seek to exploit the cause. Mixed with both classes of 
Huguenots were those who sought to fish in troubled waters, who, 
under the guise of religion or the public good, took occasion to 

1 It is true that De Thou so says: "et etablir en France une republique sem- 
blable a celle des Suisses," Book XXV, 501, but it is to be remembered that De Thou 
was writing late in the reign of Henry IV, and read back into the past the republi- 
canism of 1572. 

2 See the eminently sane remarks of Tavannes, 260. 

3 Cf. Castelnau, Book I, chap. vi. 



20 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

pillage and rob all persons, of whatever degree or quality; who 
plundered cities, pulled down churches, carried off relics, burnt 
towns, destroyed castles, seized the revenues of the church and 
the king, informed for the sake of reward, and enriched themselves 
by the confiscated property of others. Similar things are not less 
true of the Catholics. For there were zealots and fanatics among 
them also, who under pretext of religion and patriotism were guilty 
of great iniquity and heaped up much ill-gotten wealth.^ 

The ascendency of the Guises quite as much as the suppressive 
measures of the government against Calvinism served to bring 
this disaffection to a head. The issues, either way, cannot be sep- 
arated. The practical aims of the Guises were large enough to 
create dismay without it being necessary to believe that as early 
as 1560 they aimed to secure the crown by deposing the house of 
Valois. It was unreasonable to suppose, though it proved to be 
so in the end, that the four sons of Henry II would all die heirless, 
and even in the event of that possibility, the house of Bourbon 
still remained to sustain the principle of primogeniture. 

The Guises came from Lorraine, their father having been 
brother of the old duke of Lorraine; and through their mother 
they were related to the house of Bourbon. They were thus 
cousins-german of the king of Navarre and the prince of Conde 
and related to the King and the princes of the blood. Their in- 
come, counting their patrimony, church property, pensions and 
benefits received from the king, amounted to 600,000 francs 
(nearly $500,000 today), the cardinal of Lorraine alone having the 
disposal of half that sum. This wealth, united with the splendor 
of their house, their religious zeal, the popularity of the duke of 
Guise, and the concord which prevailed among them, put them 
ahead of all the nobles of the realm. The provincial governments 

I The avarice and dishonesty of the cardinal, it is said, even went so far as to 
force Catherine de Medici to divide with him the fees arising from the confirmation 
of offices and the privileges accorded towns and municipal corporations in the 
time of Henry II, which sums lawfully went to her; and even then he is said to 
have fraudulently estimated them in livres instead of ecus d'or. — La Planche, 208. 
The ecu d'or was worth two livres tournois in the reign of Francis I, so that the 
cardinal's little trick cut the sum in half. 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 21 

and the principal offices were in their hands or those of their 
partisans. 

The cardinal, who was the head of the house, was in the early 
prime of life. He was gifted with great insight which enabled him 
to see in a flash the intention of those who came in contact with 
him; he had an astonishing memory; a striking figure; an elo- 
quence which he was not loath to display, especially in politics; he 
knew Greek, Latin, and Italian, speaking the last with a facility 
that astonished even Italians themselves; he was trained in theol- 
ogy; outwardly his life was very dignified and correct, but, like 
many churchmen of the time he was licentious. His chief fault 
was avarice, and for this he was execrated. His cupidity went 
to criminal limits, and coupled with it was a duplicity so great 
that he seemed almost never to tell the truth. He was quick to 
take offense, vindictive, envious. His death w^ould have been as 
popular as that of Henry II.' 

On the other hand, the duke of Guise was a man of war, famed 
as the recoverer of Calais and the captor of Metz. He was as pop- 
ular as his brother was otherwise. But, like him, he was avaricious 
stealing even from his own soldiers.^ According to their opponents 
the ambition of the Guises was not to be content 'with the throne 
of France merely. The throne of St. Peter and the crown of 
Naples were also believed to be goals of their ambition, the cardinal 
of Lorraine aspiring to the first and his brother, the duke, aspiring 
to the other in virtue of the relationship of the Guises to the house 
of Anjou, one-time occupants of the Neapolitan throne.^ Even 
this programme was to be excelled. Their enterprises in Scotland 
in favor of Mary Stuart^ are known to every student of English 
history; and after having vanquished Scotland many of the Ger- 
man princes feared that they might move their forces into Denmark 
in order to put the duke of Lorraine, their relative and the brother- 
in-law of the king of Denmark, into possession of the kingdom.^ 

1 See the character sketch in Rel. ven., I, 437-39. 

2 Cf. La Place, 28. 3 Baschet, 497, 498. 

4 See C. S. P. For., 1559-61, passim. 

5 Ibid., No. 405, December 12, 1559. The duchess of Lorraine was a 
daughter of Christian II, the exiled ruler of Denmark. On this question see the 



22 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

"La tyrannic guisienne"^ was a practical ascendency, not a 
mere fiction of their opponents. As uncles of Francis II, destined 
morally to be a minor always, owing to his weakness of will and 
mediocre ability, having in their hands the chief offices of state, 
the Guises proceeded to build up a system of government wholly 
their own, not only in central but in provincial affairs, to compass 
which the removal of the constable and the princes of the blood 
from the vicinity of the King was the first step. Then followed an 
attempt to acquire control of the provincial governments. Mont- 
morency, the late constable, was deprived of the government of 
Languedoc;^ the governments of Touraine and Orleans, in the 
very heart of France, were given to the duke of Montpensier and 
the prince de la Roche-sur-Yon. Trouble arose, though, in Jan- 
uary, 1560, when the Guises excluded the prince of Conde from 
the government of Picardy and gave it to the marshal Brissac, 
although "the office had been faithfully administered by his pre- 
decessors."^ 

The cardinal of Lorraine's position with reference to the fi- 
nances enabled him to provide the Guise faction with the resources 
necessary to back up its poHtical intentions. ^ The onerous taxa- 
tion of Francis I had been increased by Henry II, both the taille 
and the gabelle, the collection of which had caused a fierce out- 
break at Bordeaux in the middle of the last reign; loans were 
resorted to, "not without great suspicion of their being applied 
to the King's finances;" and the wages of the soldiers in garrisons 
and officers withheld. ^ This condition of things naturally drew 

long note (with references appended) in Poulet, I, 126. Cf. Arch, de la maison 
d' Orange-Nassau, I, 132. There is httle doubt that PhiHp II and the Guises 
contemplated such a move (Languet, Eplst.. seer., II, 22, 30, 34). The war going 
on between Denmark and Sweden favored the project. This war lasted for seven 
years {Arch, de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, I, 103, 104; Raumer, II, 211). 
I La Planche, 273. 2 C. S. P. For., No. 451, December 5, 1559. 

3 Tavannes, 245; La Place, 27, 51; La Planche, 216; C. S. P. Ven., No. 272, 
1506. 

4 La Planche, 212. "11 Cardinale de Lorraine e qua Papa e re," Neg. Tosc, 
III, 404, August 27, 1559. 

s La Planche, 212; La Place, 28; Rev. hist., XIV, 67, 68. On the economic 
discontent due to the extravagance of Henry II, see Rev. hist., XIV, 71. Claude 
Haton, I, 110-12 gives a favorable contemporary judgment. 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 23 

the constable^ and his partisans toward the prince of Conde, who 
vainly endeavored to persuade the king of Navarre, as first prince 
of the blood, and therefore the natural supporter of the crown 
instead of the Guises, to take a firm stand, Conde especially repre- 
senting to him how great a humiliation it was to the crown that 
the administration of the kingdom should fall so completely into 
the hands of the "foreigners" of Lorraine; that, considering the 
weakness of the King, the fact that the provincial governorships 
and those of the frontier fortresses and the control of finances 
(which enabled the Guises to subject the judiciary to their devo- 
tion) were in their hands, foreboded ill to France. 

Antoine of Bourbon listened to the complaints against the 
the Guises, but did little. At this time he was forty-two years 
of age. He was tall of stature, well-knit, robust; affable to 
everybody without affectation or display. His manners were 
open and frank, and his generosity was so great that he was 
always in debt. By the two merits of urbanity and generosity 
he made a superficial impression that did not last. In speech 
he was vain, and imprudent and inconstant in word and deed, 
not having the strength of will to adhere to a fixed purpose. 
He was suspected of indifference to religion and even of impiety 
at this time because he renounced the mass, though it was generally 
thought that this was with the purpose of making himself chief 
of the Huguenot party and not for religious zeal. The Protestants 
themselves called him a hypocrite. ^ Antoine would not make com- 
mon cause with the constable partly from natural vacillation of 
character, partly because he believed that the constable had not 
supported his claims to the kingdom of Navarre, which he had 
been in hopes of recovering during the late negotiations at Cateau- 
Cambresis.3 With the conceit of a weak man in a prominent 
position, the king of Navarre entertained schemes of his own, which 
he proceeded to develop. His purpose was to play Spain and 

1 The act revoking many of the alienations of the royal domain fell hardest 
upon the followers of the constable and of Diane de Poitiers {Rev. hist., XIV, 71, 72). 

2 Rel. ven., I, 431. See the character-sketch by Suriano in Rel. ven., II, 47; 
C. S. P. Ven., No. 272, 1561. 

3 La Planche, 212. 



24 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

England against one another, in the hope that he either might 
persuade Phihp II to restore the kingdom of Navarre to him by a 
firm advocacy of Cathohcism in France, which, of course, prevented 
him from afhhating with the Huguenot party to which Conde and 
the Chatillons were attached; or, in the event of failure in this, to 
side with the Huguenots and enlist English support. Accordingly, 
shortly after his arrival at the court from Beam, on August 23, 
1559, Antoine sent a gentleman to Throckmorton, the English 
ambassador in France, desiring him to meet him "in cape" in the 
cloister of the Augustine Friars on that night. When they met, 
after a long declaration of his affection for Elizabeth, he said that 
he would write to her with his own hand, since he would trust no 
one except himself, for if either the Guises or the Spanish ambassa- 
dor knew of it, "it would be dangerous to both and hinder their 
good enterprise."' 

In the interval, while waiting to hear from the English queen, 
Antoine of Bourbon, who had been coldly received at court, found 
that there was no room for a third party between those of the con- 
stable and the Guises.^ At the same time the latter were made 
fully aware of his doings through the treachery of D'Escars, his 
chamberlain and special favorite,^ and shrewdly schemed to rid 
themselves of his presence by sending him to Spain as escort for 
Elizabeth, the celebration of whose marriage (by proxy) to the 
King of Spain had come to such a fatal termination, and whose 
departure had been necessarily delayed by her father's death.'* In 

1 Throckmorton to the Queen, C. S. P. Eng. For., No. 1,244, August 25, 1559. 

2 La Planche, 216. 3 Ibid., 212, 216. 

4 Weiss, L'Espagne sous Philippe II, I, 115, 16. The queen of Spain, 
in company with Antoine of Navarre and Jeanne d'Albret, arrived at Pau on 
December 21, having proceeded from Bordeaux. Great preparations were made 
for her reception and she was nobly entertained. The king and queen of Navarre 
did their part with great magnificence. The maltre des postes of Spain arrived 
at Pau the same day as Her Majesty did, with instructions how she was to conduct 
herself toward the Spanish nobles by whom she was to be met on her arrival in 
Spain. — "Extraict," written in a French hand, indorsed "My Lord Ambassador," 
C. S. P. For., II, No. 469, December 21, 1559. The king and queen of 
Navarre and the cardinal Bourbon conducted her to the frontiers and then returned; 
the prince of Roche-sur-Yon went through with her to Guadalajara and carried 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 25 

order to bait the hook the Guises represented to the beguiled 
king of Navarre that the opportunity was a most excellent one to 
urge his claims to his lost kingdom, and called in Chantonnay, 
the Spanish ambassador in France, to enforce this argument.' 

to Philip the order of St. Michael (C. 5. P. For., No. 337, November 29, 1559: 
Killigrew and Jones to the Queen). Philip II planned to meet his spouse at 
Guadalajara and thence go to Toledo, where the marriage festivities were to be 
celebrated until Shrovetide (C. 5. P. For., No. 354: Challoner to Cecil from Brus- 
sels). At the celebration, the duke of Infantado, whose guest the King was at 
Guadalajara, had sixty shepherds clad in cloth-of-gold (C S. P. For., No. 540, 
January 24, 1560). The marriage was accomplished on January 20, 1560 (C. 5. P. 
For., No. 540, January 24, 1560: statement of Granvella to Challoner). The 
French were offended because, at the receiving of the Queen-Catholic at Guadala- 
jara, the verse of the forty-fifth Psalm was sung, "Audi, filia, et vide, etc.," which 
the French disliked much, "concluding that they did not have altogether that which 
they looked for at King Philip's hands by means of his wife" (C. 5. P. For., No. 
591, January 18, 1560: Killigrew and Jones to Cecil). 

I See a letter of Francis II to the bishop of Limoges, May 21, 1506, "De 
I'ambassadeur espagnol, Perrenot de Chantonnay, et de ses intrigues," in Paris, 
Negociations, 584. Thomas Perrenot, sieur de Chantonnay, was a younger 
brother of the cardinal Granvella and was a native of Besanfon. He was named 
Spanish ambassador in France after the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (Paris, Neg. 
relatives au regne de Frangois II, 56-60). His official correspondence is in the Archives 
nationales at Paris, K. 1,492 ff. Quite as valuable is the private correspondence 
he maintained with his brother and Margaret of Parma, transcripts of which are 
in the Brussels archives. The originals are divided between Besanfon and Vienna. 
M. Paris pertinently says of him: "On ne salt pas assez toutes des manoeuvres de 
ce personnage." — Negociations relatives au regne de Frangois II, 56, note. A history 
of his public career would be a cross-section of the history of the times. He spoke 
French and German fluently and had a knowledge of Spanish and Italian. Cath- 
erine de Medici feared and hated him and in August, 1560, demanded his recall 
in vain. — Paris, Negociations, etc., 873. In 1564 he was transferred to Vienna 
{R. Q. H., January, 1879, 19, 20) and was succeeded by Alava. All the official 
correspondence of the epoch abounds with allusions to him. See Papiers d'etat 
du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 393, 400, 402, 518, 592; VIII, 353, 383, 387, 457, 513, 
523. 557' 568, 574, 594, 679; IX, I, 36, 65, 94-102, 136, 154, 166, 169, 177, 182- 
98, 225, 421, 264, 345-52, 358, 361, 377-81, 394, 415, 430, 434-37, 446, 452, 461, 
468, 482, 489, 510, 514, 522, 538, 540^43, 549-52, 556-58, 562-64, 567, 568, 581- 
89, 602-9, 615, 625, 628, 654, 668, 671; Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II, 
II, 27, 48, 89, 108, 121, 163, 171-74; Poulet, Correspondance du cardinal de Gran- 
velle, I, 565, note; R. Q. H., January, 1879, 10-12. Some of his letters which 
were intercepted by the Huguenots are published in the Memoir es de Conde. M. 
Paillard has printed a portion of those relating to the conspiracy of Amboise in 
the Rev. hist., XIV; at pp. 64, 65 is a brief sketch of the ambassador's life. See 
also Weiss's introduction to edition of Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, I. 



26 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANC 

The spirit of unrest in France, both political and religious, 
was so great that only a head was wanting, not members, in order 
to bring things to a focus. The whole of Aquitaine and Normandy- 
was reported, in December, 1559, to be in such "good heart" as 
to be easily excited to action if they perceived any movement 
elsewhere;' in February, 1560, the turbulence in Paris was so 
great that Cohgny was appointed to go thither in advance of the 
King's entrance "for the appeasing of the garboil there."^ In 
order to repress this spirit of rebellion the government diligently 
prosecuted the Huguenots. ^ The Guises hoped that the severity 
exercised during the last few months in Paris and many other 
cities against persons condenined for their religion, of whom very 
great numbers were burnt alive, "• would terrify the Calvinists and 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 543. 

2 Ibid., No. 508, December 27. Throckmorton wrote to the council on 
February 4, 1560: "At present the French have to bestir themselves for the good 
and quiet of their own country, as factions in religion are springing up every- 
where." — Ibid., No. 685. Indeed, the chancellor at this time for three days 
refused to sign an order necessary for the prosecution of the war in Scotland, on 
the ground of the dangers at home and the necessity of harboring the govern- 
ment's resources (ibid., No. 292, November 18, 1559: Killigrew and Jones to 
Cecil). Among the financial expedients resorted to at this time was an order in 
December, 1559, that all posts and postmasters should henceforth be deprived 
of the fees which they enjoyed which amounted to 100,000 crowns yearly, and for 
compensation to them the price of letters was increased a fourth part (ibid.. 
No. 508, December, 1559). On May 29, 1560, a royal ordinance abolished the 
King's support of the post entirely and some new ordinances of Parlement 
were calculated to increase the revenue by 2,000,000 francs (ibid.. No. 550, 
January 6, 1560). In February the King raised a loan of 7,000 francs at 8 per 
cent, from the Parisians (ibid., No. 750, February 20, 1560: Throckmorton to the 
Queen). 

3 "Six score commissions are sent forth for the persecution for religion." — 
Ibid., No. 451: Killigrew and Jones to the Queen, December 18, 1559. This was 
just after the murder of the president Minard. "The Cardinal of Lorraine lately 
sent .... a bag full of commissions for persecution to be done about Poitiers 
and certain letters which he carried apart in his bosom; the messenger was met and 
the letters taken from him." — Ibid., No. 590, January 18, 1560. One of these — 
"Lettre de roi a tous les eveques de son royaume" — is preserved in K. 1,494, fol. 
4. It is dated January 28, 1560. 

4 Neg. Tosc, III, 408, January 22, 1560. On January 29 a poor man, a 
binder of books, was condemned to be burned for heresy at Rouen. While riding 
in a cart between two friars to be burned, a quarrel was made with a sergeant who 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 27 

the political Huguenots into obedience. But on the contrary, 
local rebeUion increased. At Rouen, at Bordeaux, and between 
Blois and Orleans, Huguenots arrested by the King's officers were 
rescued by armed bands, in some cases the officers being killed. 
Indeed, so common did these practices become that they were at 
last heard of without surprise.' 

Imagine a young king [wrote the Venetian ambassador] without experience 
and without authority; a council rent by discord; the royal authority in the 
hands of a woman alternately wise, timid, and irresolute, and always a woman; 
the people divided into factions and the prey of insolent agitators who under 
pretense of rehgious zeal trouble the public repose, corrupt manners, disparage 
the law, check the administration of justice, and imperil the royal authority.^ 

The interests of the religious Huguenots and the pohtical Hugue- 
not's continued to approach during the autumn and winter of 
1559-60. In order to make head against the usurpation of the 
Guises,^ which they represented as a foreign domination, the latter 
contended that it was necessary to call the estates of France in order 
to interpret the laws, just as the Calvinists contended for an inter- 
convoyed him and he was unhorsed, the poor man was taken out of the cart, his 
hands were loosed, and a cloak was thrown over him, and he was conveyed out of 
the hands of his enemies. The justices and the governors, having knowledge of 
this, commanded the gates to be shut, and, making a search that night, found him 
again and burned him next day. And at his burning were three hundred men- 
at-arms, for fear of the people (C. 5. P. For., No. 708, February 8, 1560). 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 256, November 14, 1559; ibid., Few.. No. 132, March 
6, 1560. 

2 Baschet, I, 559; cf. Neg. Tosc, III, 310, January, 1560. 

3 The fear of attempts being made to assassinate them or the King haunted 
the cardinal and his brother. In November the French King, while out hunting 
near Blois, became so terrified, that he returned to court, and orders were given to 
the Scotch Guard to wear jack and mail and pistols (C. S. P. For., No. 166, Nov- 
ember 15, 1559); in December rumors reached the cardinal's ears that his own 
death and that of the duke of Guise was sworn {ibid.. No. 528); in January the use 
of tabourins and masks in court pleasures was forbidden on account of the fear 
which the cardinal of Lorraine had of being assassinated {ibid., No. 658, 
January 28, 1559). De Thou says the cardinal was "natura timidus. "' — Book 
XXV. The wearing of pistols and firearms was prohibited by two edicts, the one 
of July 3, 1559, the other of December 17, 1559. The law also forbade the wearing 
of long sleeves or cloaks or even top boots, in which a pistol or a poignard might 
be concealed. Both measures were attributed with good reason to the timidity of 
the cardinal of Lorraine. 



28 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

pretation of the Scriptures. The contentions of the Huguenots, the 
tyrannical conduct of the Guises, the menaces which they did not 
hesitate to utter against the high nobles of the realm, the retirement 
into which they had driven the constable, the removal of the princes 
of the blood which they had brought about upon one pretext or 
another, the contempt they expressed for the States- General, the 
porruption of justice, their exorbitant financial policy, the disposal 
if offices and benefices which they practiced — all these causes, 
united with religious persecutions, constituted a body of grievances 
for which redress inevitably would be demanded. The question 
was, How ? The leaders of the Huguenots — and the term is used 
even more in a political sense than in a religious one^w^ere not 
ignorant of the history of the Reformation in Germany, nor una- 
ware of the fact that politics had been commingled with religion 
there. ^ The question of ways and means being laid before the 
legists of the Reformation and other men of renown in both France 
and Germany, it was answered that the government of the Guises 
could be legally opposed and recourse made to force of arms, pro- 
vided that the princes of the blood, who, in such case had legitimate 
right to bear rule in virtue of their birth, or any one of their number, 
could be persuaded to endeavor to do so.^ But the attempt neces- 
sarily would have to be of the nature of a coup de main, for the 
reason that the King was in the hands of the Guises and the council 
composed of them and their partisans. After long deliberation 
it was planned, under pretext of presenting a petition to the King, 
to seize the cardinal of Lorraine and the duke of Guise, then to 
assemble the States- General for the purpose of inquiring into their 
administration, and before them to prosecute the ministers for 
high treason. 3 Three classes of men found themselves consorting 
together in this movement: those actuated by a sentiment of 

1 "Les protestans de France se raettans devant les yeux I'example de leurs 
voisins." — Castelnau, Book I, chap. vii. 

2 La Planche, 237. 

3 Ibid.; Castelnau, Book I, chap. viii. The Huguenots did not intend to take 
up arms against the person of the King or to force Francis II to change the 
religion of the state. The assertion that these were their purposes was an adroit 
stroke of the Guises (Rev. hist., XIV, 85, loi). 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 29 

patriotism, conceiving this to be the right way to serve their prince 
and their country; second, those moved by ambition and fond of 
change; finally, zealots who were filled with religious enthusiasm 
and a wish to avenge the intolerance and persecution which they 
and theirs had suffered.' For such an enterprise Louis of Bourbon, 
the prince of Conde, was the logical leader, both because of his 
position as a prince of the blood and on account of his resentment 
toward the Guises for having been excluded from the government 
of Picardy. But the prince, when besought to attempt the over- 
throw of the Guises for the deliverance of the King and the 
state, in view of the dubious conduct of his brother, concluded 
that it would be too perilous to the cause for him to be overtly 
compromised, in event of failure.^ Montmorency was not 
possible as a leader, for his religious leanings were in no sense 
Calvinistic; he was not a prince of the blood, and therefore his 
contentions could not politically have the weight of Conde's; and 
finally, his grievance was more a personal than a party one.^ 

1 Rel. ven., I, 525. 

2 Volrad of Mansfeldt and Grumbach, counselor of the elector palatine, but 
personal enemies of the cardinal of Lorraine, had been drawn by sympathy into 
the plan, and on March 4, through their influence, Hotman was received by the 
elector at Heidelberg, who gave Hotman a letter of credit to the king of Navarre 
and the prince of Conde. See Dareste, "Extraits de la correspondance inedite 
de Franfois Hotman," Mem. de I'Academie des sciences morales et politiques, CIV 
(1897), 649. 

3 After the failure of the conspiracy, during the course of the investigation set 
on foot by the government, the constable was accused of complicity in the affair 
but vigorously denied it in a remonstrance laid before the Parlement (La Place, 
37, gives a part of the text; Castelnau, Book II, chap, xi), and while condemning 
the conspiracy artfully contrived to imply that the Guises were to be blamed for 
much (La Planche, 269). De Thou, II, 778, perhaps reproduces the actual language of 
the constable before the Parlement, his father having been president of the body at 
this time. But in the early winter Montmorency had visited his lands in Poitou and 
Angoumois, and his daughter, Madame de la Tremouille, having quitted his usual 
place of residence at Chantilly, and traveled in those quarters of France which, it will 
be observed, are identical with those wherein the conspiracy of Amboise was hatched 
(La Place, 32). Is it reasonable to believe that a man of his political acumen and 
state of feeling at the time toward the Guises could have been unaware of at least 
something of what was in preparation ? The strongest evidence in favor of the 
innocence of the constable is the fact that his two nephews, the cardinal de Chatillon 
and the admiral Coligny were undoubtedly without knowledge of the plot. See the 



3© THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The conspirators found a leader in the person of a gentleman of 
Limousin or Perigord, one Godfrey de Barry, sieur de la Renaudie,^ 
who had been imprisoned at Dijon, escaped and found refuge in 
Switzerland;^ he had a special grievance against the Guises, who 
had lately (September 4, 1558) put his brother-in-law, Gaspard de 
Heu, sieur de Buy, to death.^ 

The active participants were, in the main, recruited from the 
Breton border, Anjou, Saintonge, and Poitou, with individual 
captains from Picardy, Normandy, Guyenne, Provence, and Lan- 
guedoc.'^ Their rendezvous was at Nantes, in a house owned, 
it is said, by D'Andelot.^ But the author of the whole daring 
project was the famous Francois Hotman, a French refugee at 
Geneva, and the real inspiration of the movement came from 
Switzerland, for the unexpected death of Henry II seemed to the 
French exiles in Switzerland to open the door of the mother country 
again to them.^ 

proofs in Delaborde, Vie de Coligny, I, 391-414; D'Aubigne, ed. De Ruble, I, 
263, n. 6; Paillard, "Additions critiques a I'histoire de la conjuration d'Amboise," 
Rev. hist., XIV (1880), 70. 71. It is hard, however, to believe that the constable 
had no information at all of what was on foot, considering his politics and his move- 
ments during the winter. 

1 La Place, 33; Le Laboureur, I, 386, says his first name was Jean. 

2 C. S. P. Ven., No. 137. He had been imprisoned for devising false evidence 
in a process of law (D'Aubigne, ed. De Ruble, I, 258, n. 3). La Renaudie is said 
even to have gone to England to see Queen Elizabeth (Haag, La France protestante, 
I, 259). No reference is given, but from Hotman's correspondence {Acad, des 
sc. moral, et polit., CIV [1877], 645) it is evident some one was so sent. The 
further fact that Mundt was approached in Strasburg and French proclamations 
printed in England were circulated in Normandy (C 5. P. For., 954, April 6, 1560) 
seems to sustain this view. 

3 La Place, 41; Castelnau, Book I, chap. viii. 

4 D'Aubigne, Book II, chap, xvii; I, 259-61 gives the names of the provincial 
captains. 

5 La Planche, 239. 

6 Mundt, Elizabeth's agent in Strasburg (he was also agent of the landgrave 
Philip of Hesse), was applied to and "thought that the Queen would not be wanting 
in kind ofhces. Already it is whispered," he wrote, "that there is a great agree- 
ment among the nobility and others throughout France, who will no longer endure 
the haughty and adulterous rule of the Guises, and that some of the first rank in 
France are cognizant of the conspiracy who remain quiet; the rest will rise in arms 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 31 

The whole plot was concerted in a meeting held at Nantes on 
February i, 1560,^ which was chosen partly because of its remote- 
ness, partly because the Parlement of Brittany being in session, 
the conspirators could conceal their purpose by pretending to be 
there on legal business. A marriage festival also helped to dis- 
guise their true purpose; and for the sake of greater caution, the 
principals were careful not to recognize one another in public.^ It 
was determined to muster two hundred cavalry from each town 
in the provinces of Guyenne, Gascony, Perigord, Limousin, and 
Agenois. For the maintenance of this force they intended to avail 
themselves of the revenues and effects of the abbeys and monas- 
teries of each province, taxing them arbitrarily and using force if 
unable to obtain payment in any other way.^ The initiative was 
to have been taken on March 6,^ under the form of presenting a 

against the Guises." — C. S. P. For., No. 779, February 27, 1560. Cf. Neg. 
Tosc, III, 409. 

An added element of adventure was the participation of a certain nobleman of 
wealth who seems to have financially supported the conspiracy for self-advantage. 
This man imagined that the movement might be converted into a movement for the 
recovery of Metz from the French (letter of Hotman to Calvin, September 19, 1559). 
In Hotman's eyes, to restore Metz to Germany was to restore it to Protestantism, 
but Calvin was cautious, for his sound policy distinguished between rebeUion and 
constitutional restriction of tyranny. He sent Beza to Strasburg to attempt to 
prevent such an action. But the Senate of Strasburg seized upon the project, 
demanded liberty for the Protestants of Metz and Treves, abolished the Interim, 
interdicted the Catholic religion, and even expelled the Anabaptists from the city, 
to the jubilation of radical Protestants, who looked upon it as just reprisal for the 
repressive policy of the Guises in France. 

1 La Planche, 238. 

2 La Place, 23; La Planche, 238. Some thirty captains were party to it, who 
were to be put in command of some companies of German lansquenets (La Place, 
33). "Upward of sixty men, part foreigners and part native Frenchmen" came 
to aid the plot (C. S. P. Ven., No. 134, March 15, 1560). 

3 C. S. P. Ven., No. 125, March 16, 1560. The correspondence of the Spanish 
ambassador testifies to the fact that the Protestant soldiery was well paid, the 
money having been procured by spoliation of the churches. They gave to each 
footman 14 francs per month and to each horseman 16 sous per day. — Rev. hist., 
XIV, 104. The Venetian ambassador says the horsemen got 18 soldi, the footmen 
10 daily (C 5. P. Ven., March 17, 1560). 

4 The Spanish Ambassador puts it upon the 6th. La Planche, Beza, Castelnau, 
De Thou, D'Aubigne, La Popeliniere, Le Laboureur make March 10 the day. The 



32 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

petition to the King against the usurpation of the Guises.^ Unfor- 
tunately for the success of the enterprise, it was too long in prepara- 
tion and too widely spread to keep secret.^ The magnitude of 
the plot alarmed the Guises, in spite of the full warning they had 
received. 3 Aside from outside sources of information, the con- 
spiracy was revealed by one of those in it, an advocate of the 

discrepancy perhaps is to be accounted for by the circumstance that Avenelles 
had said that March 6 was the day designated, but the unexpected removal of the 
court from Blois to Amboise (La Place, 33; La Planche, 346) postponed the date 
of action. Cf. Rev. h.st., XIV, 66, 85. 

1 Castelnau, ibid.; La Planche, 239, 246. The statement is confirmed by 
La Place, ^iZj 34i ^-i^d La Planche, 255 who say that the petition was written in 
invisible ink and intrusted to one Eigne, a servant of La Renaudie, who having 
been captured after the death of his master, in order to save his life, revealed the 
secret of the document. The first article was couched in these terms: "Protesta- 
tion faicte par le chef et tous les ceux du conseil de n'attenter aucune autre chose 
contre la Majestic du roy et les princes de son sang. Et estoit le but aussi de la 
dicte entreprise de faire observer d'ancienne coustume de la France par une legitime 
assemblee des estats." — Tavannes, 247. Tavannes says Eigne directly said that 
Conde and Coligny were implicated. Other incriminating papers were found in 
the boots of the baron Castelnau {Rev. hist., XIV, 99, 100; La Planche, 254, 255). 

2 Castelnau, Eook I, chap. xi. De Croze, Les Guises, les Valois et Philippe 
II, I, 60-70 (2 vols., Paris, 1866), shows admirably that there is no doubt of the 
formidable nature of the conspiracy of Amboise. 

3 It is said that the cardinal and his brother received intimations of danger 
from Spain, Italy, Savoy, Germany, and Flanders (La Place 32; Castelnau, Eook 
I, chap, viii) and it is certain that the cardinal Granvella, Philip's representative 
in the Netherlands, warned them. De Thou says that warnings came from Ger- 
many, Spain, Italy, and France. Paillard in Rev. hist., XIV, 81, is dubious about 
an Italian source, but it is confirmed by C. S. P. Ven., 137, March 6, 1560. He 
thinks that any Spanish source of information was impossible, for the reason that 
Philip II learned everything from Chantonnay. Granvella's warning is acknowl- 
edged by Chantonnay in a letter of March 3, 1560, to his brother. He was ex- 
pressly told that the aim of the conspiracy was to make away with the cardinal 
of Lorraine and all those of the house of Guise {Rev. hist., XIV, 80, 81). This is 
supported by the testimony of the constable and the Venetian ambassador (D'Au- 
bigne, I, 263, n. 3). It seems certain that this information was conveyed to the 
Guises by February 12 {Rev. hist., XIV, 83; Mem. de Conde, I, 387; D'Aubigne, 
Book II, chap. xvii). Dareste, "Fran(;ois Hotman et la conspiration d'Amboise," 
Bibliotheque de I'Ecole des Chartes, ser. Ill, V, 361, thinks that Hotman's own 
indiscreet boasting at Strasburg was responsible, at least in part, for the discovery 
of the plot. 

The duke of Guise and his brother were in such fear that they wore shirts 
of chain mail underneath their vestments, and at night were guarded by pisloleers 
and men-at-arms. On the night of March 6, while at Elois, the alarm was so great 
that the duke, the cardinal, the grand-prior, and all the knights of the order there, 
watched all night long in the courtyard (C. 5. P. For., No. 837, March 7, 1560). 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 3S 

Parlement named Avenelles, whose courage failed him at the 
critical moment.' Thereupon, for precaution's sake, the court 
moved from Blois to the castle of Amboise, which the duke, having 
the King's authority to support him, immediately set about for- 
tifying. He likewise secured the garrison and townspeople, and 
found a plausible pretext to watch the prince of Conde, by giving 




CONSPIRACY OF AMBOISE 

SURRENDER OF THE CHATEAU DE NOIZAY 

(Tortorel and Perissin) 

him one of the gates to defend, but, at the same time, sent his 
brother, the grand prior along with a company of men-at-arms 
of assured fidelity. In view of alarming rumors a posse was sent 
on March ii under command of the count of Sancerre to Tours, 
where some ten or twelve of those in the plot, notably the baron 

^ Castelnau, Book I, chap, viii; La Planche, 246, 247. He received one 
hundred ecus and a judicial post in Lorraine (De Thou, II, 774, ed. 1740). 



34 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

de Castelnau, the captain Mazeres, and a gentleman named Renay 
were already awaiting the money which was to be distributed among 
companies of theirs secretly stationed in the neighboring villages.^ 
Twenty-five of the conspirators were arrested without opposition, 
whilst incautiously walking outside the Chateau de Noizay, between 
three and four leagues from Amboise, which belonged to the v/ife 
of Renay, and the whole number of them, with five others arrested 
at Tours by the count de Sancerre, were taken to Amboise. Im- 
mediate examination, though, showed that some of them had 
risen in arms, partly from friendship for certain captains under 
whom they had served, while others had been tempted by a trifle 
of earnest money in lieu of pay, as usual when soldiers were 
raised for companies, without knowing the place of their service, 
or its purpose. They were all dismissed, with the exception of 
one or two who remained prisoners, the chancellor Olivier having 
admonished them and told them that though they deserved to die 
the king of his clemency, for this once granted them their lives. ^ 
To enable them to return home, the King had a crown (teston = 
lo to I T sous) given to each man. But the alarm was not yet ended. 
That night (March 14) several couriers arrived at the court bring- 
ing new advices. The next morning at daybreak there was 
greater commotion than ever before the castle, for two hundred 
cavalry made their appearance in the town. They thought them- 
selves almost sure of not finding any sort of resistance and that 

1 "Among the prisoners was a Gascon gentleman, one baron de Castelnau, 
who considering himself ill-used by the cardinal and the duke of Guise, with many 
other captains and soldiers, dissatisfied bn account of non-payment of their arrears 
and because they had been dismissed from the Court, finding themselves without 
salary or any other means, and being half desperate, joined the other insurgents about 
religion and conspired against the cardinal and the duke of Guise." — C. S. P. 
Ven., No. 135, March 16, 1560. Sancerre had known Castelnau during the late 
war, and when he sought to arrest him and his companions, they resisted. Although 
the city of Tours took up arms in the king's name against them, they made their 
escape into the chateau de Noizay (Indre-et-Loire), between three and four leagues 
from Amboise, which belonged to the wife of Renay (La Place, ^^. She had been 
maid of honor to Jeanne d'Albret, C. S. P. Ven., No. 135, March 16, 1560). Cf. 
C. S. P. For., March 21, 1560, and note, on p. 462 — the account of Throck- 
morton. The two versions substantially agree. 

2 C. S. P. Ven. For., March 16, 1560. 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 35 

they consequently would be able to effect their purpose, as all the 
princes and lords, Hke all the rest of thg court, had no sort of defen- 
sive armour except some coats of mail, and very few even of those, 
while their offensive weapons were merely swords and daggers, 
with a few pistols, whereas, on the contrary, the insurgents were 
well armed with both kinds of weapons and were for the most 
part well horsed. Some boatmen saw the insurgents following 
the course of the Loire, and their shouts aroused the castle. One 
or two were killed, whereupon the rest took to flight toward the 



THE EXECUTION OF AMBOISE, DEATH OF CASTELNAU 
(Tortorel and Perissin) 

country. But several were captured and two of them having been 
recognized as among the company who had been pardoned on the 
evening before, they were instantly hanged, with two others taken 
on the preceding day, on the battlements over the castle gate. 

As a result of the new alarm there was a general scattering of 
bands of arrest on the next day (March 1 5) . The marshal St. Andre 
was dispatched to Tours with nearly two hundred horse, with 
orders to take five companies of men-at-arms from the garrison 
in the immediate neighborhood. He was followed by Claude of 
Guise, the duke d'Aumale, the duke de Nemours and the prince 



36 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of Conde.' Marshal Termes was sent to Blois; the marshal 
Vieilleville to Orleans; the duke of Montpensier to Angers; La 
Rochefoucault to Bourges; Burie to Poitiers.^ During the day 
some forty others were taken. Fifteen of those pursued retreated 
into a house and defended themselves most obstinately, wounding 
many of their assailants who surrounded it, so that the house was 
set on fire: one of them, rather than surrender, burned himself 
alive by throwing himself into the flames. Toward nightfall six 
or seven more of them were hanged. The duke of Guise, whom 
the King in the exigency of the moment, made lieutenant-general 
on March ly,^ did not fail to take every precaution; he appointed 
two princes and two knights of St. Michael for each quarter of 
Amboise, keeping sentries there and sending out scouts as if the 
town were besieged. The most exposed parts of the castle were 
repaired and supplied with food, and above all with money, weap- 
ons, and artillery. The most useful remedy, however, was the 
publication and transmission for publication to all the towns and 
places in France of a general pardon for all the insurgents who 
within twenty-four hours after its notification should return to 
their homes, or otherwise they would be proclaimed rebels and 
traitors, and license would be given to all persons to slay them and 
inherit their property; but assuring the insurgents, nevertheless, 
that if they wished to say anything, or to present any request to 
the King they would be heard willingly, without hurt, provided 
they made their appearance as loyal subjects. ''^ 

The prisoners confessed that in all the neighboring towns, 
viz., Blois, Orleans, Chartres, Chateaudun, and others, a great 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 859, March 15, 1560; ibid., Ven., No. 135, March 16. 

2 Rev. hist., XIV, 102; La Planche, 247; Arch, de la Gironde, XXIX, 8. Vieille- 
ville was sent to pacify the Beauce and M. de Vassey, another knight of the order, 
to Maune, near Angers, to subdue a commotion there (C. 5. P. For., 902, March 
26, 1560). 

3 His orders at this hour are printed in the Mem.-journ. du due de Guise, 
457; Mem. de Conde, I, 342; La Popeliniere, I, 166; cf. La Planche, 225, who 
gives the gist of them. 

4 Lettres-patentes du Roi Francois II au seneschal de Lyon "concernans la 
revelacion de grace que sa Mate veult faire a ceulx qui avaient conspire contre 
I'estat de la religion et son royaume," March 17, 1560. 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 



37 



supply of arms had been made in secret, most especially of arque- 
buses, one of the men who were hanged having revealed that in 
one single house at Blois there were six large chests full of these. 
During the next three days nothing was attended to but fortifying 
the castle, repairing the weakest places around it, and making a 
trench in front of the principal gate, which opened on the country, 
in which some arquebuses and three or four small pieces of artil- 




DEATH OF LA RENAUDIE 
(Tortorel and Perissin) 

lery found accidentally and brought there from neighboring places, 
were fixed. Round the town, besides cutting the bridges which 
were at its gates, except the principal bridge over the Loire, the 
moats were cleansed and restored, leaving but one gate open.^ 
Scouting parties were daily sent out, and on March 19 a company 
of five fell in with an equal number of insurgents; after a long and 
stout fight the posse at length killed their commander and two of 

I See the extended account in C. S. P. Ven., March 20, 1560; Neg. Tosc, III 
412-15. 



38 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

his men and made the other two prisoners. One of those killed 
proved to be La Renaudie.^ 

But the Guises did not stop with these acts of punishment near 
by. Besides sending letters of authority to all bailiffs and seneschals 
ordering the arrest of all men, whether on foot or on horseback, 
to be found in the country surrounding Amboise,^ Tavannes, on 
April 12, 1560, was ordered to do the like in Dauphine, being 
actually armed with lettres de cachet issued in blank. ^ 

Few other disturbances developed except at Lyons, and in Pro- 
vence and Dauphine^ but the government was anxious with regard 
to Gascony and Normandy, "their populations being much more 
daring. "5 "The whole of Normandy is filled with Huguenotism," 
wrote the Venetian ambassador, "the people by thousands sing 
every night until ten o'clock the Psalms of David and the 

1 His corpse was hanged March 20, 1560, upon a gibbet before the court gate, 
and left there for two whole days, with an inscription at his feet running: "C'est 
La Renaudie diet la Forest, capitaine des rebelles, chef et autheur de la sedition" 
(La Place, 35; D'Aubigne, I, 268, Book II, chap, xvii; C. S. P. For., 463, note, 
March 23, 1560). 

2 The sentencing to death of prisoners continued daily, several being sent for 
execution to Blois, Tours, Orleans, and other places, "that these acts of justice 
might be witnessed universally and be better known." 

3 The instructions of the King are a curious witness of the fury of the Guises: 
" Je vous prye, y estant arrive, faire si bonne dilligence que vous les puissiez chastier 

comme ils meritent, sans avoir aucune pitie ny compassion d'eux Aussy 

je vous envoye des lettres dont le nom est en blanc et lesquelles vous ferez remplir 
a votre fantaisie, que j'escrips aux principaux seigneurs et gentilshommes dudit 
pais a ce qu'ils ayent <i assembler leur voysins et vous accompaigner en ceste entre- 
prinse." — Negociations relatives au regne de Frangois II, 342, 343. 

4 Throckmorton wrote on February 27, 1560: "It is reported that the idols 
have been cast out of the churches throughout Aquitaine and that the same would 
speedily be done in Provence." — C. S. P.' For., No. 779. Later, on April 14, the 
Venetian ambassador reports that the insurgents in Provence "have stripped the 
churches, and mutilated the images." — Ihid., Ven., No. 146. In Dauphine the 
achievements of Montbrun made him famous; see De Thou, Book XXV, 548 ff. 

5 Chantonnay to the duke of Sessa, March 24, 1560, K. 1,493, No. 45. At 
St. Malo the insurgents killed certain public officials and prevented an execution. 
On March 25 the cardinal of Bourbon went to Rouen; and on the same day there 
was a sermon in a wood without the town to above two thousand people. A priest 
and a clerk called them Lutherans and cast stones at them, and a riot ensued. 
Two days after the preacher was taken and burned (C. 5. P. For., 930, March 30, 
1560). 



BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT 39 

men-at-arms dare not touch them. The people of Dieppe every 
night in the market-place sing psalms and some days have 
sermons preached to them in the fields; in most towns in 
Normandy and many other places they do the same thing. "^ 
In consequence of this state of things, the marshal de Termes 
was appointed with royal authority and full and absolute powers 
throughout the province summarily to confiscate, imprison, con- 
demn and put to death whomsoever he pleased.^ 

In the end the government sent 1,200 of those implicated in the con- 
spiracy of Amboise or under suspicion to execution. A morbid desire to 
witness the shedding of blood seized upon society, and it became a customary 
thing for the ladies and gentlemen of the court to witness the torture of those 
condemned after the manner of the auto da fe in Spain. ^ D'Aubigne* the 
eminent historian of the French Reformation, was an eye-witness of such in- 
cidents, and though but ten years of age, swore like young Hannibal before his 
father, to devote his life to vengeance of such atrocities. ^ 

1 C. S. P. Ven., No. 142, March 26, 1560. 

2 Ibid., No. 146, April 4, 1560; ibid., For., 952, April 6. The cardinal of Lor- 
raine justified the drastic policy of the government, saying: "It will be more 
than necessary to apply violent remedies and proceed to fire and sword, as 
otherwise, unless provision be made, the alienation of this kingdom, coupled with 
that of Germany and England and Scotland, would by force draw Spain and 
Italy and the rest of Christendom to the same result." — Ibid., Ven., No. 142, 
March 28, 1560. 

3 The court attended the spectacle of these executions "comme s'il eut ete 
question de voir jouer quelque momerie." — La Planche, 263. 

4 Monod, "La jeunesse d'Agrippa d'Aubigne," Mem. de I' Acad de 

Caen, 1884. 

s C. S. P. For., 1560, Introd. Hotman vented his disappointment at the failure 
of the conspiracy and his wrath because of the cruel policy of the Guises in a 
famous pamphlet directed against the cardinal of Lorraine. It bore the significant 
title "Le Tigre." See De Thou, Book XXV, 512; Weill, 40, 98, Asse, "Un pamphlet 
en 1560," Revue de France, January 1876, and Dareste, Mem. de I' Acad, des sc. moral, 
et poliL, CIV (1877), 605. Hotman's authorship of it remained undiscovered for 
years. A counselor named Du Lyon, believed to be the author of it, a printer 
named Martin, and a merchant of Rouen, who had sponsored it, were hanged in 
the Place Maubert (Castelnau, Book I, chap, xi; La Planche, 312, 313; La Place, 
76, 77)- 

In 1875 M. Charles Read published this famous pamphlet in facsimile from 
the only e.xisting copy which was rescued from the burning of the Hotel-de-Ville 
in 1871. The text is accompanied with historical, literary, and bibliographical 
notes. 



CHAPTER II 

CATHERINE DE MEDICI BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE. 
PROJECT OF A NATIONAL COUNCIL 

The insurrection of Amboise was not wholly displeasing to 
many even in the court. Huguenot dissidence and the discontent 
of many persons with the government gave the cardinal and the 
duke of Guise many troubled thoughts even after every external 
sign of disquiet had ceased. Strong suspicion rested upon the 
prince of Conde"^ who was forbidden to leave the court and so 
closely watched that he was afraid to speak to any of his friends. 
The Guises were in a dilemma, not having the courage to shed 
the blood royal, ^ yet, on the other hand, they feared lest, by let- 
ting their suspicion pass in silence, the prince might be rendered 
more daring and confident for the future. 

So pointed did the accusation become that Conde finally de- 
manded a hearing before the Council, where he cast down the 
gauntlet to the Guises, declaring that "whoever should say that 
he had any hand in conspiring against the King's person or gov- 
ernment was a liar and would lie as often as he said so;" he then 
offered to waive his privilege as a prince of the blood in order to 
have personal satisfaction and withdrew. But the cardinal of 
Lorraine, instead of accepting the challenge, made a sign to the 
King to break up the session. ^ 

Antoine of Navarre had been in the south of France during 
these events but, nevertheless, he also did not escape suspicion; 

' The baggage of the prince of Conde was opened, it being expected to find 
therein letters or other writings relating to the conspiracy, and although excuses 
were made after the search, attributing it to thieves, yet as none of the contents 
were missing, the belief greatly prevailed of the search having been made for that 
purpose (C S. P. Ven., No. 178, 1560). 

On March 22 the prince of Conde was confronted with one of the condemned 
conspirators, but to the discomfiture of his enemies, no evidence against the prince 
could be elicited (C. S. P. For., No. 919, March 29 1560). 

2 La Planche, 267. 

3 Castelnau, Book I, chap. xi. 

40 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 41 

a secretary of his who was staying in Paris to look after his affairs 
was searched and all the furniture of his house ransacked to dis- 
cover incriminating papers, if possible.^ The Bourbon prince was 
doubly alarmed at the suspicion of guilt because his name was 
associated with that of the Enghsh queen. ^ The king of Navarre 
may have had imperfect knowledge that something was in the wind 
when he left the court to visit his dominions in the south, but he 
was no party to the conspiracy.^ Of Queen EHzabeth's indirect 
participation there is no doubt at all. The behef prevailed in 
Paris that great offers had been made to the earl of Arran by Gas- 
cony, Poitou, Brittany, and Normandy, if he would lead an English 
descent into those parts,^ and in the two last-named provinces 
EngHsh merchants and sailors animated the people to rebelhon 
against the house of Guise by means of proclamations in the French 
language printed in England.^ But if the Guises shrank from 
shedding the blood of the princes, they struck as near to them as 
they dared, by urging the pursuit of Visieres, a former Heutenant 
of Montgomery, for whose apprehension, dead or alive, a reward 
of 2,000 crowns was offered,^ and Mahgny, a lieutenant of the 
prince of Conde. 

1 La Planche, 268. 

2 May 6, 1560, Navarre to Throckmorton: "Has received a letter . . . . 
enclosing a proclamation of the Queen in which he sees it intimated that the princes 
and estates of France are to call her to their aid. As first prince of the blood he 
repudiates this, and .... hopes she will not mention him or the others in her 
proclamations again, as it will only injure them with the King" (written from 
Pau).— C. S. P. For., No. 40. 

3 Mem. de Conde, I, 398; La Popeliniere, I, 170. 

4 C. S. P. For., No. 992, April 12, 1560. 

s Ibid., No. 954, April 6, 1560; Chantonnay wrote to the duchess of Parma 
that Elizabeth was privy to the conspiracy (Ruble, Antoine de Bourhon et Jeanne 
d'Albret, II, 142). 

^C. S. P. For., No. 992, April 12, 1560. The unfortunate baron Castelnau, 
in view of the fact that he was a knight of the order, was at first sentenced to the 
galleys for three years, but later, at the instance of the Guises, was condemned to 
die and was beheaded on March 29, along with the captain Mazeres, the duke of 
Nemours, the baron's captor, being absolved from keeping his promise to spare 
his life (C S. P. For., No. 952, April 6, 1560; La Planche, 264, 265; La Place, 34; 
D'Aubigne, 268-70, Book II, chap. xvii). One of the most prominent of those 
arrested was the Scotchman, Robert Stuart, who had already been suspected of the 



42 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Although the initial purpose of the conspiracy had failed, namely 
to take the King and drive out the Guises/ Conde and his followers 
did not fail to perceive that things were not entirely unfavorable.^ 
Catherine de Medici, who while jealous of the position of the 
Guises in a place which naturally, and by tradition, if the regencies 
of Blanche of Castille and Anne of Beaujeu counted as precedents, 
belonged to her, had nevertheless sustained the drastic policy fol- 
lowed out after the execution of Du Bourg, in spite of the arguments 
of the admiral.^ Now, however, she saw her opportunity to make 
head against the cardinal and his brother and played into the hands 
of Cohgny and Conde. ^ She prevailed upon the King to send the 

murder of President Minard, and who claimed to be a relative of Mary Stuart. 
He was imprisoned in the Conciergerie and put to torture, but would admit nothing. 
It was he who shot the constable Montmorency on the battlefield of St. Denis. 
Stuart had the reputation of being able to make bullets, called Stuardes, which 
would pierce a cuirass. He himself was killed in turn at the battle of Jarnac by 
the marquis of Villars, count of Tende, who stabbed him with a dagger (Rev. hist., 
XIV, 93; Forneron, Histoire des dues de Guise, II, 92). 

1 "A conspiracy to kill them both and then to take the King and give him 
masters and governors to bring him up in this wretched doctrine," is the way the 
cardinal of Lorraine and his brother described it to the dowager queen of Scotland 
in a letter of March 20, 1560 (C. 5. P. For., No. 870). 

The King's circular letter to the Parlements, bailiffs, and seneschals of the 
kingdom on March 30 declared that the conspirators "s'estoyent aides de certains 
predicans venus de Geneve." — Mem. de Conde, I, 398. 

2 "It had been well if the Guises had not been so particularly named as the 
occasion of these unquietnesses, but that it had run in general terms," wrote Throck- 
morton to Cecil (C S. P. For., No. 954, April 6, 1560). Chantonnay advised the 
queen mother that, in order to avoid further difficulty, it was expedient for the 
Guises to retire from court for a season (La Place, 38). 

3 La Planche, 219, 20. 

4 Tavannes actually says she was privy to the conspiracy of Amboise, p. 247. 
During the reign of Henry II, Catherine de Medici had had no political influence. 
She was hated as an Italian {Rel. ven., I, 105). On one occasion only did she assert 
herself; "En 1557, a la nouvelle du desastre de Saint-Quentin, qui ouvrait a 
I'Espagne les portes de la France, il y eut un moment d'indicible panique. Hommes 
d'etat, hommes de guerre, tous avaient perdu la tete. Par un hasard heureux, 
Catherine se trouvait a Paris; seule elle conserva son saiig-froid, et, de sa propre 
initiative, courant en I'hotel-de-ville et au parlement, et s'y montrant si eloquente 
et energetique, elle arracha aux echevins et aux membres du parlement un large 
subside et rendit du coeur a la grande ville." — La Ferriere "L'entrevue de 
Bayonne," R. Q. H., XXXIV, 457. 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 43 

admiral upon a special mission to Normandy late in July, where 
he was expected to take the edge off the Marshal Termes' conduct, 
and secretly abetted the faction of the constable.^ The oppor- 
tunity was the better to do these things owing to the death of the 
chancellor Olivier on March 27,^ who had been an instrument of 
the Guises, and the queen mother was quick to seize it. The 
famous Michel de I'Hopital^ was immediately appointed to the 
vacancy. He was a man of great knowledge in the law and of 
great culture; at the moment he was president of the chambre des 
cotnptes and had been chancellor to Madame Marguerite of France, 
the duchess of Savoy (who had Protestant leanings, and had inter- 
ceded for Du Bourg), and was a member of the conseil prive of the 
King. L'Hopital's accession was followed by the proclamation 
of letters of pardon to all recent offenders, provided they lived 
as good Cathohcs, the King declaring that he was unwilHng to 
have the first year of his reign made notorious to posterity for its 
bloody atrocities and the sufferings of his people. ^ This was 
followed in May, 1560, by the royal edict of Romorantin, whereby 
the jurisdiction of legal processes relating to rehgion was completely 
taken away from the courts of parlement and from lay judges who 
had power to pass summary judgments, and was remitted to the 
ecclesiastical judges; which was interpreted as an assurance to 

1 "Ut exorientes tumultus reprimeret," Raynaldus, XXXIV, 72, col. i; 
Chantonnay to Philip II, August 31, 1560, K. 1,493, No. 76; D'Aubigne, I, 27; 
La Planche, 269. Shortly before the death of Henry II, Coligny had sought to 
resign his government, wishing to retain only his ofl&ce of admiral but Henry 
refused to accept the resignation (Delaborde, I, 362). Coligny then endeavored 
to have his government of Picardy given to his nephew, the prince of Conde (Rev. 
hist., XIV, 74). Meanwhile he continued to hold the oflace of governor to prevent 
the Guises getting control of it (La Planche, 216). Finally in January, 1560, the 
admiral again went to court to present his resignation, and at the same time to 
urge the appointment of his nephew. This time it was accepted, and the prince 
of Conde was appointed to the post (La Planche, 217; Rev. hist., XIV, 74, 75). 

2 La Place, 36; C. S. P. For.^ No. 952. 

3 La Place, 38. On L'Hopital see Dupre-Lasale, Michel de I'Hopital avant son 
elevation au paste de chancellier de France, 2 vols., 1875; Amphoux, Michel de 
I'Hopital et la liberie de conscience au XV le siecle; Guer, Die Kirchenpolitik d. 
Kanzlers Michel de I'Hopital, 1877; Shaw, Michel de I'Hopital and His Policy. 

4 La Place, 37. 



44 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

accused persons that they needed no longer fear the penalty of 
death, owing to the opportunity of delaying sentences by means 
of appeals from the acts and sentences of bishops to archbishops 
and from thence to Rome/ In August a supplementary decree 
ordered the bishops and all curates to reside at their churches, the 
bishops being prohibited in the future from proceeding against 
anyone in the matter of religion except the Calvinist preachers or 
persons in whose houses Huguenot meetings were held, the gov- 
ernment thus tacitly permitting others to live in their own way, 
which was interpreted as a virtual "interim."^ The spirit of this 
legislation, as well as the skilful use of the law made therein, is 
certainly due to the heart and brain of the chancellor L'Hopital, 
although Coligny is not without credit for his influence.^ 

These changes had the double effect, first, of persuading the 
queen to take the management of affairs upon herself and endeavor 
to remove the house of Guise frorh court; and second, in giving 
the Huguenots and their partisans the opportunity of strengthening 
themselves. The leniency of the government drew back into 
France numbers of those who had withdrawn, among them preach- 
ers from Geneva and England who gave new hfe to the party by 
exhorting them to continue their assemblies and the exercise of 

' Castelnau, Book I, chap, xi; C. S. P. Ven., No. 174, 1560; Ravnaldus, 
XXXIV, 66, col. 2; D'Aubigne, I, 274, n. 3; La Planche, 305; La Place, 468, gives 
the text. The edict was not published, though, until July 17 (K. 1,494, folio 6). 

- C. S. P. Ven., No. 193, August 30, 1560. The term "interim" was tech- 
nically applied to a resolution of the sovereign, with or without the approbation of 
the diet or the estates of the country. By such an edict religious affairs were regu- 
lated provisionally, pending a final settlement by a general council of the church. 
The practice first obtained in Germany, where Charles V issued such a decree in 
favor of the Lutherans in 1548. See Rev. hist., XIV, 76, 77. "In modo che, 
restando ciascuno d'allora in dietro assicurato dalla paura che avea per innanzi, 
di" poter esser inquisito, questo si puo dir che fosse uno tacito interim.^'- — Rel. 
ven., I, 414. 

3 "La reyne mere du roy, monstrant une bonne affection a I'admiral, le pria de 
la conseiller et I'advertir par lettres, souvent, de tous les moyens qu'il sfauvoit et 
pourroit apprendre d'appaiser les troubles et seditions du royaume." — Castelnau, 
Book I, chap. xi. Those of the Council who were unwilling to consent to such 
changes absented themselves. The marshals Brissac and St. Andre did so, the 
one alleging ill health as his excuse, the other hatred of the king of Navarre 
{Rel. ven., I, 549). 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 45 

their religion.^ There was fear that the "interim" would be used 
by the Huguenots like the edge of a wedge to open the way to pos- 
sess churches of their own, and such a demand was shortly to be 
made openly in the King's council at Fontainebleau in August, 
1560. 

It was apparent that there was not a province which was not 
affected, and there were many in which the new religion was even 
spreading into the country, as in Normandy, Brittany, almost 
all Touraine, Poitou, Guyenne, Gascony, the great part of Langue- 
doc, Dauphine, Provence, and Champagne.^ The "religion of 
Geneva" extended to all classes, even to the clergy — priests, monks, 
nuns, whole convents almost, bishops, and many of the chief prel- 
ates. The movement seemed to be widest among the common 
people, who had little to lose, now that life seemed safe. Those 
who feared to lose their property were less moved. But neverthe- 
less all classes of society seemed deeply pervaded. While the 
"interim" lasted only those were punished who were actually 
preaching and holding public assemblies. The prisons of Paris 
and other towns were emptied, and in consequence there was a 
great number of persons throughout the kingdom who went around 
glorying in the victory over the "papists," the name which they 
give their adversaries. To add to the discomfiture of the Guises, 
the breach between them and Montmorency was widened.^ The 
duke of Guise had purchased the right of the sieur de Rambures 
to the county of Dammartin, not far from Paris, and adjacent to 
that of Nanteuil,4 which the duke had shortly before acquired, 
the lower court of which was held in relief of Dammartin. In 
order to do so the duke of Guise had persuaded Philippe de Bou- 

1 Castelnau, Book I, chap, xi; Rel. ven. I, 415 and n. 2. 

2 Davila, I, 295; Rel. ven., I, 413. "In the rural portions of Normandy, for 
unknown reasons, ' Lutheranism ' had spread so much that to one district of that 
province was given the name of 'Little Germany.'" — Hauser, American Hist. 
Rev., January, 1899, 225; 

3 The Tuscan ambassador, as early as April, 1560, advised his government of 
the likelihood of this feud {Neg. dip. de la France avec la Toscane, III, 415-17 
Rev. hist., XIV, 74). 

4 Nanteuil, near La Fere (Aisne). 



46 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

lainvilliers, who had lately sold the property to the constable, to 
rescind the contract which had been made, and sell it to him.' 
But the duke met with a straight rebuff, for when he sent word of 
the transaction, the constable answered by Damville, his son, that 
"as he had bought it, so would he keep it."^ The feud between 
the Guises and Montmorency naturally threw the "connesta- 
blistes" more than ever to the side of Conde. Damville was sent 
to the King and the queen mother, who were staying at Chateaudun, 
to inform them that the Guises were his declared adversaries, and 
then went to confer with the prince of Conde, whom he met, 
"environ le jour appele la feste de Dieu au mois de Mai,"^ between 
Etampes and Chartres, near Montlhery, when on his way to Guy- 
enne, to see his brother of Navarre. The Guises, who had infor- 
mation of the interview, enlarged upon the dangerous conduct of 
Conde and pushed the suit for the lands of Dammartin in the 
courts. "^ 

Catholic zealots made much of the events of Amboise to enlarge 
the reputation of the Guises. "During the whole of this Passion 
week," wrote the Venetian ambassador, "nothing has been 
attended to but the sermons of the cardinal of Lorraine, which 
gathered very great congregations, not only to his praise, but to 
the universal astonishment and admiration, both on account of 
his doctrines and by reason of his very line gesticulation, and incom- 
parable eloquence and mode of utterance."^ 

On the other hand, those who abhorred him on account of reli- 
gion and for other causes did not fail to defame him by libels and 
writings placarded pubUcly in several places in Paris, where they 
were seen and read by everyone who wished.^ Scarcely a day 
passed without finding in the chambers and halls of the King's 
own palace notes and writings of a defamatory nature abusing 

1 La Place, 38. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 232, June 24, 1560; D'Aubigne, I, 276; Mem. de Conde, 

I, 151- 

3 La Place, 41; D'Aubigne, I, 277. 

4 La Place, 41. 5 C. S. P. Ven., No. 149, 1,560. 

(• Rel. ven., II, 139; Neg. Tosc. Ill 417. La Planche, 217, gives a sample 
ampoon. 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 47 

the cardinal of Lorraine. In Paris the Palais de Cluny, belonging 
to the Guise family, full of furniture of great value, was nearly 
burnt by a mob.' In several places the cardinal's painted effigy, 
in his cardinal's robes, was to be seen, at one time hanging by the 
feet, at another with the head severed and the body divided into 
four quarters, as was done to those w^ho w ere condemned. In the 
Place Maubert he was hanged in effigy and burnt with squibs.^ 
But worse disturbances than violent manifestoes disquieted the 
government. On June i, 1560, the day of the Corpus Domini at 
Rouen, when the procession passed through the city with the 
customary solemnities, it was remarked that in front of a certain 
house before which the procession passed no tapestry or any other 
decoration had been placed. Villebonne, the King's officer, "who 
on account of these disturbances about religion remained there," 
perceived the omission and being suspicious of some clandestine 
meeting of the Huguenots, chose to verify the fact instantly. He 
attempted to enter the house by force, but met with such stout 
resistance on the part of its inmates that the procession was inter- 
rupted, and a great tumult arose, both sides having recourse to 
arms. After much fighting, each party having several wounded, 
at length with the death of some defenders of the house and after 
very great effort, the authorities quieted the uproar as well as they 
could. Next morning upward of 2,000 persons appeared before 
the royal magistrates, not only very vehemently to demand justice 
and satisfaction for the death of those persons who had been killed, 
but to present also the "Confession" of what they believed and 
the mode in which they intended it should be allowed them to live, 
demanding that the " Confession" should be sent to the King that 
it might be granted, and protesting that if on that account his 

1 C. 5. P. Ven., No. 151. 

2 Ibid., For., No. 992, April 12, 1560. On one occasion the police of Paris, 
when pursuing a murderer, entered a house at a venture, into which they thought the 
culprit had made his escape, where they found and arrested the man who printed 
and placarded over the walls of Paris the writings against the Guise family and 
against the cardinal (ibid., Ven., No. 178, 1560; Neg. Tosc, III, 417, 418). 
The offending printer was hanged and then quartered (C S, P. Ven., No. 186, 
July, 1560). 



48 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

ministers proceeded against any of them by arrest or capital punish- 
ment or other penalty, they would put to death an equal number 
of Catholic officials of the government. The president and four 
councilors of the Parlement of Rouen journeyed to Paris to present 
the " Confession." They assured the King that the whole of Nor- 
mandy was of the same opinion as those who declared themselves. 
In its quandary the government blamed Villebonne, accusing him 
of too much zeal and inquisitiveness. Moreover, fresh commotions 
were heard of daily, and the government plainly feared some 
sudden attack like that of Amboise.^ 

The Guises plucked courage, however, from the fact that under 
the pretext of still preparing for the war in Scotland in support of 
Mary Stuart,^ they could fill France with soldiery. ^ Months 
before the outbreak of the conspiracy of Amboise their agents had 
been at work in Germany, using French gold for the purchase of 
arms, ammunition, and above all, men, for Germany was filled 
with small nobles of broken fortune, vagabond soldiers,* and 
lansquenets ready to serve wherever the pay was sure and the 
chance for excitement and plunder good.^ 

1 C. 5. P. Ven., No. 174; ibid., For., No. 232, June, 1560; No. 234, June 24, 
1560; La Planche, 261. Francis II, during the course of this investigation, stayed 
at Maillebois, a house of D'O, the captain of the Scotch Guard, on the edge of 
Normandy (C. 5. P. For., No. 233, June 24, 1560). 

2 D'Andelot and Coligny refused to make war upon the Scotch Calvinists 
(C. 5. P. For., No. 168, June 7, 1560). 

3 "Rapport indiquant les preparatifs faits pour I'enterprise sur I'Ecosse, a 
Rouen, au Havre et a Dieppe," K. 1,495, No. 2, 11 juillet 1560. 

"The embarkment for Scotland hastens. Soldiers arrive daily from Dieppe 

and New Haven At Caudebec, Harfleur, and New Haven there is e.xceed- 

ing great store of provision and munitions, sufficient for 25,000 men for six months." 
— C. S. P. For., No. 233, June 24, 1560. 

4 Mundt to Cecil, from Strasburg, ibid., No. 52, May 7, 1560. 

5 Gresham to Cecil, ibid.. No. 617, January 22, 1560: "The French king 
brings at least 20,000 footmen in Germany and he has taken up at Lyons as much 
money at interest as he can get." 

The count of Mansfeldt to the Queen, ibid.. No. t,^. May 5, 1560: "The 

French continue to raise troops and to buy horses and ammunition Possibly 

these preparations are being made against the insurgents of France, but it is doubt- 
ful whether under pretense of invading Scotland " 

After the conspiracy of Amboise the duke of Ferrara sent 1,000 harquebusiers 
and the Pope 4,000 Italians (ibid., No. 952, April 6, 1560). 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 49 

On March 30, 1560, Guido Giannetti, Elizabeth's secret agent 
at Venice, wrote to Cecil, "France will have enough to do in her 
religious wars that have just sprung up, which will be worse than 
the civil war of the League of the Public Weal, in 1465 under 
Louis XL"' The prophecy soon became true. In spite of the 
formidable preparations made to continue the war in Scotland,^ 
the more necessary since the death of the queen dowager of Scot- 
land, news of which reached France on June 18,^ France — or rather 
the French party in Scotland — on July 6, 1560, signed the treaty 
of Edinburgh, which, so far as the Guises were concerned, was 
the renunciation on their part of aggression abroad. ^ Nothing 
but the grave state of home politics could have induced the Guises 
so to yield the cause of their niece in Scotland. 5 

The Huguenot issue promised to come to a climax during the 
summer of 1560.^ From all over France came reports of sedition 
and insurrection. The Protestants were masters of Provence. ^ 

1 C. S. P. Eng., No. 931. The clever Italian, in this case, had more discern- 
ment than Cecil, who thought that the French would rather "yield in some part than 
to lose their outward things by inward contentions." — Cecil to Elizabeth, June 21, 
1560; ibid., 1560-61, No. 152, n.; Keith, 414; Wright, I, 30. 

2 See letter of the cardinal of Lorraine and duke of Guise, Appendix I. 

3 C. .S. P. For., No. 255, June 30, 1560. The news was concealed from Mary 
Stuart for ten days. 

4 Precis d' articles arretees conclus entre le commissionaire d' Angleterre et de 
la France: Affaires d'Ecosse (summary), K. 1493, No. 59, 6 juillet 1560. 

Montluc, the bishop of Valence, the bishop of Amiens, and MM. de la Brose, 
d'Oysel, and Randau were the French ambassadors who accepted the terms offered 
by Cecil. Their commission was issued from Chenonceaux May 2, 1560. Montluc 
and Randau signed the instrument, an abstract of which is in C. S. P. For., No. 
281, July 6, 1560. Castelnau, Book II, chaps, i-vi, gives an account of the Anglo- 
Scotch war. See the memoir of Montluc upon his mission, in Paulin Paris, 
Negociations, etc., 392; and Schickler, Hist, de France dans les archives privees 
de la Grande Bretagne, 6. The treaty may be found in Rymer, XV, 593; 
Keith, I, 291; Lesley, Hist, of Scotland (1828), 291. 

5 "The late peace was forced upon the French rather by necessity occasioned 
by their internal discord than from their desire for concord. " — Mundt to Cecil from 
Strasburg, August, 13, 1560, C. S. P. For., No. 416. 

6 Chantonnay to Philip II, June 27, 1560, K. 1493, 68c. 

7 Neg. Tosc, III, 419, 420, May, 1560. Biragues, king's lieutenant in Saluzzo, 
to the duke of Anjou, March i, 1560, Collection Montigny, No. 298. 



50 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The cardinal Tournon, returning from Rome, dared not bring 
with him the cross of the legation, for fear of its meeting with dis- 
respect by the people of the places through which he would have 
to pass.^ From another source came the report that "very free 
sermons have been delivered in the churches of Bayonne."^ The 
bishop of Agen wrote the council that all the inhabitants of that 
city were in a state of furious insurrection ; that they went to the 
churches, destroyed all the images, and maltreated certain priests. 
The queen mother was mysteriously warned that unless she re- 
leased certain preachers imprisoned at Troyes she would become 
the most unhappy princess living.^ The Pope's legate left 
Avignon in disgust at the license of the "Lutherans, "^ and when 
the pontiff proposed to send thither the cardinal Farnese, who 
was willing to go provided a suitable escort of Italian and Swiss 
infantry was furnished, France refused to consent, being un- 
willing to allow a foreign prince to enter the kingdom on such a 
warlike footing. ^ * 

At the same time the personal attack upon the Guises be- 
came more venomous.^ The enmity between the Guises and 
the house of Montmorency had become so open and proceeded 
so far, owing to the dispute about Dammartin, that it was ex- 
pected they would take up arms. To crown all, the govern- 
ment received information through several channels of a design 
against the King and his ministers of worse quahty than the 
recent Amboise conspiracy.' The information that came to light 
caused the greatest anxiety because this time the evidence seemed 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 386, August 3, 1560. Throckmorton was told that "all 
in this country (Picardy) seem marvellously bent to the new religion." — Ibid., No. 
405, August 7, 1560. 

2 Ihid., No. 416, August 13, 1560. 

3 Ibid., Ven., No. 188, July 30, 1560. 

4 Ibid., For., No. 416, August 13, 1560. 
s Ibid., No. 494, September 7, 1560. 

6 A pamphlet, issued in the nature of a petition and addressed to the king of 
Navarre and the princes of the blood, abounded in invective against them. — Cas- 
telnau, Book II, chap, vii; C. S. P. For., No. 168, June 7, 1560. 

7 C. S. P. Ven., No. 188, July 30, 1560. 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 51 

strongly to compromise the vidame de Chartres/ and the prince 
of Conde.^ 

Although the war in Scotland was practically at an end, the 

1 A vidame is a baron holding of a bishop. The vidame of Chartres was 
cousin-german of Maligny, suspected in the Amboise conspiracy. The vidame 
not having any children, Maligny and his brother were his sole heirs. The comte 
de Bastard has written a biography of him, Vie de Jean de Ferrieres, vidame de 
Chartres, Auxerre, 1885. 

2 C. S. P. Ven., No. 193, August 30, 1560. 

The prince of Conde, during this summer, had repaired to Guyenne to see his 
brother, the king of Navarre, at Bordeaux where he protested against the Catholic 
policy of Antoine (La Blanche, 276; La Blace, 35). The brothers met on June 25 
(Rochambeau, Lettres d' Antoine de Bourbon et de Jeanne d'Albret, 202). In his 
journey he inveighed against the usurpation of the Guises, and found a hearing from 
the noblesse and gentlemen of the south, who urged him and his brother to assume 
the place to which their rank entitled them. The Guises were kept informed of 
this journey of the prince by the marshal St. Andre, who, under pretense of visiting 
his brothers, kept watch of Conde (La Blanche, 314, 315; La Blace, 53). The 
discovery of the plot was owing to the suspicious vigilance of the duke of Guise, who 
marked a Basque gentleman who appeared in Baris as a stranger bent on important 
business, and surmised that he had been sent by the king of Navarre. It was 
noticed that he had conferred with the vidame of Chartres, and so, "as he was 
returning .... to ... . Navarre, the duke of Guise had him and his valises, 

with (his) letters and writings, seized at Etampes In the vahse many letters 

were found, said to have been addressed both to the king of Navarre and to his 
brother, the prince of Conde. Among them were letters of the constable and his 
son, Montmorency, though they were merely letters of ceremony; but those of 
importance were what the vidame wrote to the prince, part in cipher and part 
without." — C. S. P. Ven., No. 193, Aug. 30, 1560. Cf. La Blanche, 355-58; De 
Thou, III, 357; Negociations relatives au regne de Frangois II, ^6^ ; De Crue, 277, 278. 
The vidame of Chartres was arrested on August 29, 1560, by the provost-marshal 
and the lieutenant-criminal, at his lodgings in Baris, and carried through the streets 
upon a mule, "with a great rout of armed men to the Bastille." — C. S. P. For., No. 
483, September 3, 1560. Castelnau, Book II, chap, vii, says that the letters promised 
to assist the prince of Conde against all persons whatsoever e.xcept the King and the 
royal family. The Venetian ambassador says that there was enough in them 
"clearly to indicate that for many months there had been an intrigue." — Ibid., 
Ven., No. 193, August 30, 1560. On the other hand, Throckmorton asserts that 
"the substance of the letter sent by the vidame to the king of Navarre is said to be so 
wisely written that it is thought that nothing can be laid to his charge." — Ibid., 
For., No. 502, September 8, 1560. He was examined by the archbishop of Vienne 
and the president De Thou. Upon his arrest the vidame said "he was glad 
of it, for now the King would know of his innocence." — Ibid., No. 502; La 
Blace, 70. 



52 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Guises had not relaxed their efforts to raise men and money.' 
Phihp II, knowing what was in progress, seems to have made 
a partial offer of assistance. In July fifteen German captains 
were dispatched beyond the Rhine, each commissioned to bring 
back three hundred pistoleers for the King's service;^ letters were 
sent to the Rhinegrave and Duke John Wilham of Saxony, urging 
them to form a league of the German princes and procure forces 
in case there should be need of them.3 La Mothe Gondrin was 
sent into Provence and Dauphine, and another agent into Cham- 
pagne, on similar errands. ^ Fifteen hundred men with armor 
and munitions were sent to the castle of Guise. ^ The Guises 
even endeavored to effect a reconciliation with the constable 
through the mediation of the marshal Brissac.^ 

The prevailing alarm was not allayed by the admiral, Gaspard 
de Coligny, who at a full council meeting held at Fontainebleau, 
on August 20, 1560, presented two petitions, ' one for the King, 
the other for his mother, asking the King, in the matter of rehgion, 
to concede the petitioners two places of worship in two parts of 
the kingdom for greater convenience, that they might there exercise 
their rites and ceremonies as private congregations, without being 

- The treaty of Edinburgh between Scotland and England was signed on July 6, 
1560 (C. S. P. Scot., IV, 42). 

On July 28, 1560, Francis II, writing to the bishop of Limoges, says it is unne- 
cessary to do more than inform the king of Spain that he has made peace with 
Scotland, which will leave him leisure to attend to the internal affairs of the realm and 
to thank him for his good ofl&ces (Teulet, I, 606); cf. C. S. P. For., July 28,' 1560, 
194, n. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 345, July 19, 1560. 

3 Castelnau, Book II, chap, vii; C. S. P. For., No. 416, August 13, 1560, from 
Strasburg. 

4 C. S. P. For., No. 502, September 8, 1560. 
s Ihid., No. 354, July 19, 1560. 

(>Ihid., No. 317, July 8, 1560; Neg. Tosc, III, 421-23, June, 1560. 

7 At the assembly at Fontainebleau the King proposed four points for delibera- 
tion: (i) religion; (2) justice; (3) the debts of the crown; (4) means to relieve the 
people (Neg. Tosc, III, 424, August 25, 1560). C. S. P. For., No. 442, August 20, 
1560; La Place 53; La Planche, 351; Castelnau, Book II, chap, viii, give the names 
of those present. The petitions are printed in Mem. de Conde, II, 645. Picot, Hist 
des etats generaux, II, 14, erroneously gives the date as August 23. 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 53 

* 

molested by anyone, arguing that meetings in private residences 
would thus be obviated,^ Coligny claimed to speak with authority, 
having been officially sent into Normandy by the queen mother 
to inquire into the cause of the disturbances there. A hot alterca- 
tion ensued between the admiral and the cardinal of Lorraine. 
Coligny had prudently omitted signatures to the petition, but 
declared that he "could get 50,000 persons in Normandy to sign 
it," to which the cardinal retorted that "the King could get a mil- 
lion of his own religion to sign the contrary."^ L'Hopital, the 
chancellor, however, deftly divested the discussion into a political 
channel by a long discourse^ upon the condition of the realm, 
comparing it to a sick man, asserting that the estates were troubled 
and corrupt, that religious dissidence existed, that the nobility 
were dissatisfied, and concluded by saying that if the source and 
root of all the calamities visiting France could be discovered, the 
remedy would be easy.^ In reply the cardinal of Lorraine offered 
to answer publicly for the administration of the finances and showed 
by an abstract of the government accounts that the ordinary ex- 
penses exceeded the revenue by 2,500,000 livres (over seven and one- 
half million dollars) ; his brother, the duke of Guise, as lieutenant- 
general, laid papers upon the table with reference to the army and 
forces of the kingdom. ^ An adjournment was then taken until 
August 23, when, upon reassembling, each member of the Council 
was provided with a memorandum containing a list of the topics 
which the crown wished to have debated.^ 

Montluc, the bishop of Valence, ^ as the youngest privy- coun- 

^ C. S. P. Ven., No. 195, August 30, 1560; Castelnau, Book II, chap, viii, gives 
an abstract of the speech, in the third person. Cf. La Place, 54, 55. 

2 Castelnau. loc. cit. 

3" En termes prolixes." — De Thou, Book XXV, 525. It is printed in 
CEuvres completes de L'Hdpital, ed. Dufey, I, 335. 

■t "They might see all states troubled and corrupted, religion, justice, and the 
nobility, every one of them ill-content, the people impoverished and greatly waxed 
cold in the zeal and good will they were wont to bear to their prince and his minis- 
ters."— C. S. P. For., No. 442. 

5 La Blanche, 352; Castelnau, Book II, chap, viii; the statement of the debt 
given by La Blanche agrees exactly with C. S. P. For., 442. 

^ Castelnau, loc. cit.; La Blanche, 352. 

^ See Raynaud, Jean de Montluc, eveque de Valence, 1893. 



54 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

cilor, began the discussion when the Council reconvened.^ But 
the speech of the occasion was that of Marillac, the Hberal arch- 
bishop of Vienne, who, taking his cue from the chancellor, in a 
long discourse^ enlarged upon the religious, political, and economic 
distress of France. His address is a complete statement of the 
Huguenot programme in church and state. He began by saying 
that the true "ancient and customary" remedy was a general 
council, but failing that, recourse must be had to a national council, 
and then proceeded to enumerate the things to be considered there- 
in; first, the intrusion of foreign prelates — chiefly Italians — into 
French ecclesiastical ofilices,^ "who fill a third portion of the 
benefices of the kingdom, who have an infinite number of pensions, 
who suck our blood hke leeches, and who in their hearts, laugh at 
us for being so stupid as not to see that we are being abused;" 
secondly, he demanded that the clergy of France show by some 
notable act that they were sincerely bent upon reform and not 
merely seeking to fortify their prerogatives and privileges under the 
pretension of reform; and to this end the illicit use of money — 
"that great Babylonian beast, which is avarice, in whose path 
follow so many superstitions and abominations" — must be guarded 
against; thirdly, the wicked must make sincere repentance; 
fourthly, for the adjustment of the political and economic questions 
vexing the people the 'States- General must be convened. Then 
followed a statement of conditions : that the king must live upon 
the income of the royal domains, the spoliation of which should 
cease; that his wars be supported by the old feudal aids and 
not by recourse to extraordinary taxes. 

This speech highly pleased the admiral, who added three points, 

1 "Les derniers et plus jeunes conseillers opinent les premiers, afin que la 
liberte des advis ne soit diminuee ou retranchee par I'authorite des princes ou 
premiers conseillers et seigneurs." — Castelnau, Book II, chap. viii. He made a 
typically episcopal, not to say unctuous, address. Cf. La Place, 54; La Planche, 
352; printed in Mem. de Conde, I, 555; La Popeliniere,,I, 192. 

2 La Planche, 352-61; La Place, 53-65. 

3 Reform in the collation of benefices was one of the important deliberations of 
the Council of Trent (Baguenault de la Puchesse, "Le Concile de Trente," R. Q. H. 
October, 1S69, 339). 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 55 

namely, that, a religious " interim " be officially granted until the 
findings of the Council of Trent, which the Pope was to be asked 
to reconvene; that in event of refusal to do so, a national council 
of the clergy of France be called in which the Huguenots should 
have a representation;' and that the number of guards around 
the court, "which were very expensive and only served to infuse 
fears and jealousies into the people's minds" be reduced.^ 

The upshot of the conference was the resolution to call a meeting 
of the States- General for December 10 at Meaux (later changed 
to Orleans), and in default of the convening of a general church 
council, to convene a national body of the clergy at Paris on Janu- 
ary 10, 1561, the long interval being allowed in order to permit 
the Pope to act.^ In the meantime the status quo was maintained 
with reference to the worship of the Protestants, but for the sake 
of precaution, an edict was issued by which all subjects of the 
realm, whether princes or no, were prohibited from making any 
levy of men, arms, armor, horses, or moneys, on pain of being 
declared rebels against his majesty. "^ 

There is no doubt that the resolution of the Council of Fon- 
tainebleau conformed to the conviction of a large element in France, 
the rehgious troubles having stirred up a strong demand for another 
general council of the church (the second session of the Council 
of Trent having been interrupted by the defeat of the emperor 
Charles V in the Smalkald war), or a national council, if the con- 
vocation of the former proved impossible. ^ Even the cardinal 

^ Neg. Tosc, III, 424, August 29, 1560. 

= Castelnau, Book II, chap, viii; La Planche, 361. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 193, August 30, 1560; Paris, Negociations relatives au 
regne de Francois II, 481; Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, I, 149, n.; 
La Place, 68; La Planche, 363. "The government seems determined not to await 
the meeting of a council general, the decision of which will be tardy, but to con- 
vene a national one, assembling in a synod all bishops and other leading and intel- 
ligent churchmen of the kingdom, to consult and provide for the urgent need of 
France in m.atters of religion which admit of no delay." — C. S. P. Ven., No. 
142, 1560. 

4 La Place, 70. 

s In Tours as early as April, 1560, a letter was published to all the governors 
and ministerial officials of the cities and provinces of the kingdom concerning the 
reformation of the church by means of a congregation of the prelates of the Galilean 
church to be assembled for a national council (C. 5. P. Ven., No. 151, 1560). 



56 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of Lorraine, desirous of acquiring fame by reforming the church 
of France, urged the course, though it was hostile to the interest 
of the Holy See, until the development of events at home per- 
suaded him to change his tactics.' 

The project of a national council was not pleasing to the Pope, 
who cherished the hope of reconvoking the Council of Trent, ^ 
either in France, Spain, or Germany.^ When the cardinal of 
Lorraine urged it, the Pope's rejoinder was that he would not divide 
Christ's garment.4 The Holy Father was in a quandary, being 
unable with safety to grant a free council, or to refuse the general 
one. He wanted to regard the prospective council as a continua- 
tion of the Council of Trent, and not as a new council.^ But there 
were political difficulties in the way of so doing, for not all the Ger- 
man princes were in favor of the decrees of Trent, and the Emperor 
was bound by his oath not to attempt execution of the decrees lest 
the princes of the Confession of Augsburg become alarmed for 
fear that the Emperor, His Catholic Majesty and the Most Chris- 
tian King had formed a Catholic concert.^ The Kings of Spain 

I The ultra-Catholic party at Trent accused the cardinal of wanting to create 
an independent patriarchate out of the Galilean church. Desjardins. Neg. de 
la France dans le Levant, II, 728. 

As a matter of fact, at this season, the cardinal was disposed to favor the pro- 
ject of a national council, as he hoped thereby to enlarge the power and dignity 
of his office as primate of France. His ambition was to become a sort of French 
pope, so that "he would not have thought it wrong had all obedience to the pontiff 
ceased." — Despatches 0} Suriano (Huguenot Society), September 23, 1560. 

- Maynier, Etude historique sur le concile de Trente {i§4j-62), 1874; Journal 
du concile de Trente, redige par un secretaire venitien present aux sessions de 1^62 a 
I §6 J, et public par Armand Baschet, avec d'autres documents diplomatiques relatijs 
dla mission des Ambassadeurs de France au concile; Desjardins, Le pouvoir civil au 
concile de Trente, Paris, 1869; Baguenault de la Puchesse, "Le concile de Trente," 
R. Q. H., October, 1869. 

3 C. S. P. Ven., No. 161, 1560. 

4 Ibid., For., No. 232, June 24, 1560. When the Pope showed anger at the 
determination of France, the cardinal of Lorraine actually apologized for himself 
by saying that it was neither by his orders nor with his consent, but that the printers 
took the liberty to give the name of National Council to the "Congregation" which 
the King intended to convoke! {ibid., No. 174, 1560). 

5 Ibid., No. 569, September 8, 1560. 

6 Ibid., No. 615, October 8, 1560. The demands of the Protestants were 
as follows: (i) That the Council be convened in a free city of Germany; (2) that 
summons be not by a papal bull, but by the Emperor, who should provide them 
with safe-conducts; (3) that the Pope be subordinated to the Council; (4) that those 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 57 

and France, moreover, although in favor of the general council, 
had reservations of their own regarding the application of the Tri- 
dentine decrees.^ 

The matter of the council was of much importance to every 
ruler in Europe. France, although resolved to convene the 
national clergy if the Pope protracted things, nevertheless urged 
the latter to hasten to grant a free and general council, not only 
by means of the bishop of Angouleme, the French ambassador 
in Rome, and the cardinals, but also through Bochetel, the bishop 
of Rennes, ambassador to the Emperor, and Sebastian de I'Aube- 
spine, the bishop of Limoges, ambassador to Philip 11. The Vene- 
tian senate, too, was importuned to use its influence. But the 
Pope hesitated for a long time, because the secular governments 
and himself were divided upon the question as to whether such 
a council should be regarded as a continuation of the Council of 
Trent (as the Pope wished), or as a council de novo. The Pope 
was fearful of compromising the papal authority by admitting the 
French contention of an authority superior to himself, for this he 
could never grant, taking the ground that, whether present or 
absent, he was always the head of and superior to all councils. 
Finally, Pius IV, alarmed by the resolution of the French govern- 
ment to assemble a national council if the general council should 
not be held, both because it would diminish his authority and 
because, even though nothing should be resolved on in opposition 
to the see of Rome, yet the assembling of a council by France with- 
out its consent would be prejudicial, and might be made a precedent 
by other states, came to the conclusion that further delay was 
dangerous, and convoked the general council for Easter, 1561, 

of the Confession of Augsburg have a vote equally with the Catholics; (5) that the 
judgment be according to the Holy Scriptures, and not according to the decrees of 
the Pope; (6) that the prelates of the Council be absolved from the oath by which 
they are bound to the Pope and the Church of Rome; (7) that the acts of the Council 
of Trent be annulled (cf. C. S. P. For., No. 782, sec. 14). 

i"A general councilis necessary for abolishing these heresies; but. . . . espe- 
cial care must be taken with the Emperor and the kings of France and Spain to 
decide what shall be settled therein." — -C. S. P. For., No. 416, August 13, 1560, 
from Strasburg. 



58 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

at Trent, " to extirpate heresy and schism and to correct manners,"' 
declaring that the canons of the church could permit of no other 
course. 

The resolution of the French government had forced the hand 
of the Pontiff, who, however, consoled himself by the thought that 
either the national council would not now take place, or that the 
Guises would prevail in the States- General, so that the national 
council could be silenced, if held.^ The Pope figured that he would 
force the Catholic princes to side with him, lest by hazarding a 

1 The Vatican understanding was that the former Council of Trent was to be 
continued; although in the bull the word continuation was not made use of, as in 
that of the jubilee, a show of deference thereby being made to the Emperor and the 
French King, who had demanded a new council. But the French government 
although it allowed the place, did not allow the continuation of the former Council 
of Trent convened by Paul III. For if it accepted the council as it was published 
by the bull, it would have had to accept all the articles which had been concluded 
in the former council. When it was argued that Philip II was satisfied with the 
continuation, Francis II replied that although continuation might suffice for the 
needs of his dominions, it would not do for France, the more so because Henry II 
of France having caused protest to be made in Trent of the nullity of that council, 
from its not having been free, his son could not think well of the continuation. (The 
reply of Francis II to Philip II, October, 1560, is in Paris, Negociations, 615-22. 
Cf. also the luminous accounts of Elizabeth's agent in Venice, Guido Gianetti, 
C. S. P. For., No. 782, December 7, 1560; No. 815, December 21, 1560; and the 
dispatch of Throckmorton to the queen, of December 31, 1560, giving an account 
of a conversation with the king of Navarre, No. 832, §7.) In the reply made to 
Philip in October, 1560, the French King declared that, by the advice of his council, 
he had resolved upon an assembly of his prelates, from which nothing was to be 
feared for the apostolic see, it being intended only to provide the necessary remedies, 
and that it would not be a hindrance but rather an aid to the General Council, for 
when it came to open, the French prelates would be already assembled and "well 
informed as well of the evil as of the remedy," and that when the Council at Trent 
should have once begun, it would put an end to the lesser assembly. As to the place 
of the council, the French at first preferred to have it meet in one of the Rhenish 
towns between Constance and Cologne, or at Besanjon in Burgundy, which be- 
longed to Philip II; later, in the answer to Don Antonio and in his letters to Rome, 
Francis II agreed to accept whatever place the Emperor and the Pope decided 
upon. 

The new session of the Council of Trent was to be preceded by a general jubilee, 
giving power to confessors to absolve from all sins, even from that oj having read 
prohibited hooks. The bull warmly exhorted the extirpation of heresy. This 
jubilee was first celebrated at Rome, on Sunday, November 24, 1560, by a proces- 
sion, with the Pope walking at its head (C. 5. P. For., No. 782, §§15, 16). 

2 La Place, 114; C. S. P. For., No. 630, October 12, 1560, from Venice. 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 59 

change of religion in a national council they would also endanger 
their kingdoms. Philip II concurred in this belief. A king so 
orthodox as he had not failed to watch the course of the movement 
in France upon the ground of religious interests. But the Spanish 
King had also a political interest in France. His own Flemish and 
Dutch provinces were turbulent with revolt, and Granvella wrote 
truly when he said that it was a miracle that with the bad example 
of France, things were no worse in the Low Countries.' Accord- 
ingly, Philip II sent Don Antonio de Toledo into France to divert 
the French King from the idea of a national council.^ The means 
of persuasion were readily at hand, for the French King was already 
far too compromised with Philip II to refuse his request. After 
the arrest of the vidame of Chartres, Francis II, in a long ciphered 
letter of August 31, 1560, to his ambassador in Spain, had besought 
the Spanish king to be prepared to assist him, in case it should be 
necessary. 3 To forefend the proposed national council, Philip II 
now offered at his own expense to give the French aid in sup- 
pressing all rebellion and schism. ^ 

1 Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II, I, 191, Granvella to Antonio Perez 
from Brussels, August 9, 1560. 

2 Paris, Negociations, etc., 615-22; Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VI, 
137, 149. Don Antonio arrived at the French court on September 23, and departed 
four days later (C. S. P. For., 619, Oct. 10, 1560). Philip II took the ground that 
any discussion looking toward the reformation of religion would not only imperil the 
faith, but prejudice his policy in Spain and the Netherlands; for if France should 
alter anything, he feared it would cause a schism universally (ibid., No. 619, 
Oct. 10, 1560). The growth of the reformation in Spain alone was already quite 
great enough to alarm him. In the early autumn of 1559, Miranda, the archbishop 
of Toledo, the archbishop of Seville, and twelve of "the most famous and best- 
learned religious men" in Spain had been arrested for heresy (ibid., No. 133, 
October 25, 1559), and at this time the inquisitors had just laid their hands on 
the brother of the admiral of Spain {ibid.. No. 619, October 10, 1560). On this 
whole subject see Weiss, The Spanish Reformers, and Wiffen, Life and Writings of 
Juan de V aides, 1865. Montluc accused Jeanne d'Albret of printing Calvinist 
catechisms and the New Testament in Spanish, in Basque, and in Bearnais, and 
of secretly distributing them in Spain by colporteurs (La Ferriere, Blaise de 
Montluc, 61). 

3 Paris, Negociations, 495; Forneron, Histoire de Philippe II, I, 225. The 
Venetian ambassador learned the news within less than a month (C. S. P. Ven., 
No. 199, September 28, 1560). 

4 This important offer was Philip's answer to Francis II's letter of August 
31 and was made to L'Aubespine, the French ambassador in Spain, on September 



6o THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Warlike preparations accordingly went forward under cover 
of a proposed intervention in Scotland,' which the uncertainty- 
regarding Conde and Antoine of Bourbon facilitated, for it was 
currently believed that both the king of Navarre and the prince 
absented themselves from court on purpose.^ At the court the 
rumor prevailed that both were plotting recourse to arms, so much 
so that on September 2 the cardinal Bourbon was sent to them, 
desiring them in the name of the King to repair to the court, which, 
on the, next day, was moved from Fontainebleau to St. Germain.^ 
The marshal Brissac was transferred from the government of 
Picardy to that of Normandy, and Du Bois, master of the foot- 
men, was instructed to conduct all the footmen he could levy 
with great secrecy into Normandy, while all the men in the 
ordinary garrison of Picardy and other frontier points were drawn 
in toward Orleans.'* At the same time the Rhinegrave was notified 
to come, but met unexpected opposition. ^ 

13, 1560, as appears from the minutes of the Spanish chancellery in K. 1,493, ^^- ^4- 
After the departure of Don Antonio, Catherine wrote a letter to Philip II, thanking 
him for the offer {Correspondance de Catherine de M edicts, I, 149). 

The Venetian ambassador is particular and says he offered to put 3,500 troops 
in Flanders at the disposal of France, to place 2,000 infantry near Narbonne, and 
another 4,000 near Bayonne, besides "a large body of Spanish cavalry." — C. S. P. 
Ven., No. 199, September 28, 1560. Throckmorton's figures are 3,000 Spaniards 
from the Low Countries; 500 men-at-arms and 2,000 footmen, who would enter 
by way of Narbonne; and 3,000 through Navarre with 500 horses of that country 
{ibid., For., No. 619, §13, October 10, 1560). 

C. S. P. Eng., No. 620, October 10, 1560. 

2 Ibid., For., No. 411, August 9, 1560. 

3 Ibid., No. 502, September 8, 1560; Chantonnay of Philip II, same date, K. 
i,493> No. 83. 

'^ Ibid., No. 619, §§13, 15, October 10, 1560. The gendarmerie is appointed 
to remain in divers countries according to an edict. Has been informed that 
there is a league in hand between him (the king of France) and the king of 
Spain. On the i6th there departed out of Paris ten cartloads of munitions and 
artillery, but whither it is to be conveyed and how it is to be employed he cannot 

s"From Strasburg: Frequent negotiations between the French King and the 
German princes. The Rhinegrave has departed into Hesse .... with Count 
John of Salm, who is also a French pensioner; where, by the landgrave's permission 
and the dissimulation of the Saxon duke of Weimar, they have levied 2,000 cavalry 
to take into France, which they have partly collected in the territories of the abbot 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 6t 

Parallel with, these military preparations new financial meas- 
ures were taken. On October ii, 1560, the King demanded 
100,000 crowns (testons — a silver coin valued at ten or eleven sous; 
the amount was between $750,000 and $775,000) from the mem- 
bers of the Parlement, the provost, the chief merchants of Paris,' and 
"certain learned men of the Sorbonne."^ The Parisians mur- 
mured because they thought the military display was meant to 
intimidate them. In November the crown imposed 10,000 francs 
(approximately $7,500) upon Orleans and demanded 100,000 
more to pay the troops. ^ Lyons furnished a loan^ and money 
was also secured by confiscations from the Huguenots on the part 
of the local authorities in many places. ^ 

In the provinces disturbances continued to take place.^ In 
Amboise and Tours the people stormed the prisons and released 
all those who had been confined as agitators on account of religion. ^ 

learn (C. S. P. For., No. 655, October 22, 1560). On the 30th. Du Bois passed 
bringing with him out of the places and forts in Picardy 1,000 footmen, who marched 
between this town and Rouen toward Anjou; but where they shall go is only known 
to himself and the duke of Guise. They keep together strong, as if they were in 
an enemy's country. After them come 500 more (ibid., No. 692, Oct. 31, 1360). 
The Tuscan ambassador notices the ardor of Paris to contribute blood and treasure 
(Neg. Tosc, III, 436). 

of Fulda on the boundaries of Hesse. The prefect of the Rhenish Circle, the count 
of Salm, being informed of this preparation of cavalry, assembled his captains at 
Worms, where it was decided that they would not be permitted to transport their 
cavalry into France. For a warning had been given in the Imperial Diet that no 
assembling or travelUng of soldiers would be allowed unless by the express permission 
of the Emperor; for wherever they went they did great damage to the inhabitants." 
— Ibid., No. 736, November 26, 1560. 

1 For the organization of Paris at this time see Livre des marchands, 423, 440-43. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 665, October 22, 1560. The Venetian ambassador says 
400,000 francs — twice the amount given by Throckmorton (C. 5'. P. Ven., 220, 
October 15, 1560). 

3 Ibid., No. 726, November 18, 1560. 4 Ibid., No. 619, October 10, 1560. 

5 "The goods of divers Protestants have been seized and divers men dispatched 
by night and sent by water in sacks to seek heaven." — Ibid., No. 726, November 
18, 1560. Cf. La Planche, 226, 227, 233. 

6 D'Aubigne, Book II, chap, xx; Neg. Tosc, III, 424; for details see La 
Planche, 366-73. 

7 C. S. P. Ven., No. 200, October 15, 1560. 



62 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The valley of the Loire seems to have been the storm center of 
these provincial uprisings, and in the middle of October^ the king 
came hastily to Orleans with three companies of veteran infantry 
from the garrisons of Picardy.^ It was now decided to convene 
the States- General at Orleans instead of Meaux.^ On October 
30 the prince of Conde, who all along had borne himself as if inno- 
cent and who came with his brother to Orleans, was arrested,^ and 
the vidame of Chartres, who had been incarcerated in the Bastille, 
was sent for from Paris that he might be examined face to face 
with Conde. 5 Besides being accused of implication in the con- 
spiracy of Amboise, he was accused of being the author of the recent 
insurrection at Lyons. ^ 

A significant change was made in the provincial administration 
at this time. The Guises, having observed the dissatisfaction 
that prevailed because so many offices, dignities, and commissions 
had been distributed among them, in order to fling a sop to the 
princes of the blood and their faction, advised the King to create 

1 On October 18 (La Planche, 378). 

2 "Very well armed and numbering more than 300 men in each company and 
several pieces of cannon." — C. S. P. For., No. 665, October 25, 1560. 

The people of Orleans were completely disarmed, even to knives, by an edict 
which required all arms to be deposited in the H6tel-de-Ville {Despatches of Suriano 
[Huguenot Society], November i, 1560). 

3 Paris, Negociations, etc., 486. Castelnau, Book II, chap, x, says the change 
was made because the Huguenots were numerous around Meaux (but so were they 
also around Orleans), and fear lest another conspiracy might be formed by having 
the place known so long in advance. A rumor was current that the Huguenots 
were planning to surprise it. I believe the real reason to be the more central 
location of Orleans. 

4 " On his arrival with his brethren, the cardinal of Bourbon and the prince of 
Conde, the prince was taken before the Council who committed him prisoner to 

MM. de Bressey and Chauverey, two captains, with 200 archers The king 

of Navarre goes at liberty but is as it were a prisoner." — C. S. P. For., No. 716, 
§18, November 17, 1560; La Place, 73; Castelnau, Book II, chap, x; Neg. Tosc, 
III, 425. La Planche, 381, describes the method of his imprisonment. 

5 La Planche, 380; C. S. P. For., No. 725, November 18, 1560; Neg. Tosc, 
III, 425, 426. 

6"Qu'il avoit faict et faisoit plusieurs entreprises contre luy (le roi) et I'estat 
de bon royaume." — La Planche, 380; Despatches 0} Suriano (Huguenot Society), 
November 10, 1560. 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 6 



o 



two new governments in the middle of the kingdom in favor of 
the duke of Montpensier and his brother, the prince de la Roche- 
sur-Yon. In compliance with this suggestion the government of 
Touraine, to which province was added the duchies of Anjou and 
Vendome and the counties of Maine, Blois, and Dunois, was 
created in favor of the former, and the government of Orleans, 
to which was added the duchies of Berry, the pays Chartrain, the 
Beauce, Montargis, and adjacent places, in favor of the latter. 
But the new oijiice was reduced to a shadowy power by the revolu- 
tionary step of appointing provincial lieutenants over the gover- 
nors, who were responsible to the duke of Guise as lieutenant-gen- 
eral of the realm, in this case the sieur de Sipierre being lieutenant 
in the Orleannais and Savigny in Touraine, each of whom was a 
servitor of the Guises.^ 

There is little reason to doubt that the Huguenots would have 
made a formidable revolt at this early day if they had been certain 
of effective leadership. But the cowardice of Antoine of Navarre, 
the logical leader of the party, prevented them from so doing. The 
great influence he might have exerted as first prince of the blood 
was in singular contrast with his weak character.^ His policy, 
which he flattered himself to be a skilful one of temporization, was 
looked upon with contempt by the Huguenots, who despised him 
for weakly suffering his brother to be so treated and then added 
to his pusillanimity by foregoing his governorship of Guyenne, 
which was given to the marshal Termes.^ In vain the Huguenot 
leaders urged upon him their supplications and their remon- 
strances ;4 in vain they laid before him the details of their organiza 

' La Place, 38; La Planche, 378; Castelnau, Book II, chap, x; Rel. ven., \, 
557; Brantome, III, 278. 

2 Yet he was so carefully watched that he was practically a prisoner — "tanquam 
captivus," says Throckmorton to Lord Robert Dudley (C. 5. P. For., No. 721, 
1560). Damville was also regarded with suspicion. 

3 Ibid., No. 716, §18, November 17, 1560. 

4 Castelnau, Book II, chap, ix; La Planche, 318-38, gives the text of one, 
which is significant because it is almost wholly a political indictment of the Guises; 
next to nothing is said touching religion, conclusive evidence that the Huguenot 
party was much more political than religious. 



64 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

tion; that six or seven thousand footmen throughout Gascony and 
Poitou were already enrolled under captains; that between three 
and four thousand, both foot and horse, would come from Provence 
and Languedoc; that from Normandy would come as many or 
even more, with a great number of cavalry; that with the aid of 
all these he would be able to seize Orleans (thus controlhng the 
States- General), and Bourges, with Orleans the two most impor- 
tant towns in central France. They assured him that thousands 
were merely waiting for a successful stroke to declare themselves 
and that money was to be had in plenty; for every cavalryman 
and every footman was supphed with enough money for two months 
and that much more would be forthcoming, provided only the king 
of Navarre would declare himself the protector of the King and 
the realm and oppose the tyranny of the Guises.' 

This was the moment chosen by Catherine de Medici to assert 
herself. Hitherto, there had been no room for her between the 
two parties, each of which aspired to absolute control of the King. 
The queen mother had no mind to see herself reduced to a simple 
guardian of the persons of her children, utterly dependent upon 
the action of the council, without political authority nor "control 
of a single denier,"^ and perceived that she might now fish to 
advantage in the troubled waters; to change the figure, she deter- 
mined to play each party against the other^ in the hope of herself 
being able to hold the balance of power between them. This 
explains her double-dealing after the conspiracy of Amboise, 
when she represented to Coligny that she wished to be instructed 
in the Huguenot teachings in order, if possible, that she might be 
able to discover the "true source and origin of the troubles," and 
conferred with Chaudien, the Protestant pastor in Paris, and 
Duplessis, the Huguenot minister at Tours, at the same time also 
inquiring into the political claims of the Huguenots, having the 
cardinal of Lorraine concealed, like Polonius, behind the arras ;4 

I La Planche, 375, 376. ^ ibid., 318. 

3"Qu'il seroit meilleur pour elle d'entretenir les choses en I'estat qu'elles 
estoyent, sans rien innover." — Ibid., 313. 
4 Ibid., 316, 317. 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 65 

why, too, she used fair words at the conference at Fontainebleau 
and simultaneously saw Francis II write to Philip II asking for 
Spanish aid in the event of civil war. 

The Venetian ambassador said truly that the famous Roman 
temporizer, Fabius Cunctator, would have recognized his daughter 
in this astute woman of Etruria.' For fear of being sent back 
to Italy or of staying in France without influence, she aimed to 
play the two parties against one another. She did not hesitate 
to hazard the crown in order to keep the government in her hands, 
although, as the Venetian ambassador said, "to wish to maintain 
peace by division is to wish to make white out of black."^ 

The time was a peculiarly propitious one. With the prince 
of Conde out of the way^ she counted upon the vacillation and 
hesitancy of the king of Navarre to keep the Huguenots from overt 
action, while the prospect of the coming States- General, which 
had grown out of the assembly at Fontainebleau, as the bishop 
of Valence had predicted,'* filled the Guises with dismay, so much 
so that when the demand for the summons of that body began to 
grow, they had endeavored to persuade the King to ordain that 
whoever spoke of their convocation should be declared guilty of 
lese-majesteJ The reason of their alarm is not far to seek. The 
demand for the States- General was the voice of France, speaking 
through the noblesse and the bourgeoisie, crying out for a thor- 
ough inquiry into the administration of the Guises and reformation 
of the governmental system of both state and church; as such it 
was a menace to the cardinal and his brother and in alignment 
with the demands of the political Huguenots. The costly wars 
of Henry II, the extravagance of the court ; the burdensome taxa- 

1 Baschet, La diplomatie venitienne, 499. 

2 Rel. ven., II, 65. 

3 The more one considers the arrest of the prince of Conde, the more certain it 
seems that Catherine de Medici inspired it. The Venetian ambassador believed 
Catherine was at the bottom of his arrest; see Baschet, 500, 501. 

4" The bishop of Valence says .... that the meeting of Fontainebleau would 
turn into a general assembly of the three estates of France." — C. S. P. For., No. 
445, August 22, 1560. 

5 La Planche, 218. 



66 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

tion; the venality of justice; the lawlessness and disorder prevail- 
ing everywhere; the impoverishment of many noble families, and 
the rise of new nobles out of the violence of the wars in Picardy 
and Italy, more prone to license and less softened by the social 
graces that characterized the old families;' the dilapidation of 
ancestral fortunes and the displacements of wealth; the religious 
unrest; the corruption of the church — all these grievances, none 
of which was wholly new, were pihng up with a cumulative force, 
whose impending attack the Guises regarded with great apprehen- 
sion.^ 

The administration of the cardinal of Lorraine and his diical 
brother had not mended matters, but in justice to them it should 
be said that their ministry was quite as much the occasion as the 
cause of the popular outcry for reform. The evils of the former 
reign were reaching a climax which their haughtiness and ambition 
served to accentuate.^ Misappropriation of public moneys, exor- 
bitant taxation, denial of justice, spoliation of the crown lands, 
especially the forests, the dilapidation of church property, and 
the corruption of manners, were undoubtedly the deepest popular 
grievances. In the demand for redress of these grievances all 
honest men were united. In 1560 the cry of the Huguenots for 
freedom of worship was the voice of a minority of them only. 
Most Huguenots at this time were poHtical and not rehgious Hugue- 
nots, who simply used the demand of the new reHgionists as a 

1 See the scathing comparison of the house of Guise with that of Montmorency: 
"La plus ancienne yssue du premier chrestien du premier du royaume de la 
chrestiente." — Livre des marchands, 428-30. 

2 "Messieurs de Guyse vouloyent venir aux armes pour effacer ceste poursuite 
des estats et reformation de I'eglise .... la poursuitte que nous avions si juste- 
ment commencee de leur faire rendre compte de leurs dons excessifs, c'est-a-dire de 
leurs larcins, et de leur mainement des finances, ou plustost de leurs finesses."^— 
Ibid., 456. 

The petition of the estates of Touraine, assembled at Tours on October 26, 
1560, to the King, is a good example of this popular demand. The articles reflect the 
state of the times (C S. P. For., No. 681). In connection with this authentic 
petition compare the imaginary "discours du drapier" in a fancied meeting of the 
estates-general, as given in Livre des marchands, 427-40, the satirical forerunner 
of the greatest political satire of the sixteenth century, the Satyre Menippee. 

3 La Planche, 260. 



CATHERINE BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDE 67 

vehicle of expression ; this sentiment also accounts for local risings 
to rescue arrested Calvinists, the participants in many cases being 
actuated more by the desire to make a demonstration against the 
government than by sympathy with the Calvinist doctrines.^ 

The debts of the crown at the accession of Francis II aggregated 
forty- three millions of livres,^ upon which interest had to be paid, 
without including pensions and salaries due to officers and servants 
of the royal household, and the gendarmerie, which were from 
two to five years in arrears,^ a sum so great that if the entire revenue 
of the crown for a decade could have been devoted to its discharge, 
it would not have been possible to liquidate it. The result was 
the provinces abounded with poor men driven to live by violence 
and crime, while even the nobility, because of their reduced incomes, 
and the soldiery on account of arrears of wages, were driven to 
plunder the people.^ Even members of the judiciary and the 
clergy had recourse to illicit practices. ^ The regular provincial 
administration was powerless to suppress evils so prevalent, whose 
roots were found in the condition of society. It was in vain that 
the crown announced that it was illegal to have recourse to arms 
for redress of injuries and commanded the governors in the prov- 
inces, the bailiffs, seneschals, and other similar officers to stay 
within their jurisdictions and vigilantly to sustain the provost- 

1 Cf. La Place, 47"-49> 1 10-13; La Planche, 342; and especially the indictment 
in Livre des marchands, 436-58. 

2 To be exact, 43,700,000 lives (Isambert, XIV, 63). Part of it was held by the 
Swiss cantons: "The French King is conferring with the Swiss about paying his 
debts, and offers two-thirds with a quarter for interest, and to pay the whole within 
three years; which conditions they refuse, and desire him either to stand to his 
written promises or that the matter shall be discussed in some place appointed in 
Switzerland." — C. S. P. For., No. 763, December 3, 1560,-from Strasburg. 

3 "In so much as it was necessary for him to find the wherewithal to satisfy 
some of these obligations, the late king had abolished certain of them and reduced 
others; he had let 50,000 footmen be billeted upon the cities of the kingdom and 
caused money to be raised by the imposition of subsidies, so much so that he had 
found it necessary in some places to diminish the taille, the people having abandoned 
the county of Normandy." — C. S. P. For., No. 658, January 28, 1560; cf. La 
Place, 47; Livre des marchands, 447, 448; Neg. Tosc, III, 405 and 455. 

4 "The soldiers through necessity have begun to rob." — C. 5. P. For., ibid. 

5 La Place, 48. 



68 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN PRANCE 

marshals in suppressing sedition or illegal assemblies. Some 
men thought the remedy lay in more drastic penalties and advo- 
cated the abolishment of appeal in criminal causes, as in Italy and 
Flanders.^ But history in many epochs shows that the social 
maladies of a complex society cannot be so cured. Obviously 
the true remedy lay in searching out the causes of the trouble and 
destroying them, and this was the intent of the demand for the 
States- General. 

The summons of the States- General of Orleans and the further 
act of the government in announcing that it would summon a na- 
tional council of the French clergy to meet in Paris on January lo, 
1 561, unless the Council General was called in the meantime, 
were equivalent to promises that reform would be undertaken 
in both state and church. The double announcement was the 
simultaneous recognition of one necessity — reformation. 

I La Place, 49. 



CHAPTER III 

THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 

The prosecution of the prince of Conde and the vidame of 
Chartres was pushed during the month of November in order to 
overcome any Huguenot activity in the coming States- General.' 
The Guises assured both the Pope and Spain that their intention 
was, after the execution of the prince, to send soldiery into the 
provinces under the command of the marshals St. Andre, Termes, 
Brissac, and Sipierre, whose Catholicism was of a notoriously 
militant type, and thus either to crush the Huguenots, or drive 
them out of the country.^ Conde claimed, upon the advice of his 
counsel, the advocates Claudius Robert and Francis Marillac, 
that as a prince of the blood he had to give account to the King 
alcne and to judges suitable to his condition, as peers of France, 
denying the jurisdiction of the ordinary judges. ^ This the latter 
refused to allow, on the ground that there was no appeal from 
the King in council (which at least had been the practice of the 
crown since Francis I) because the judgment so given was an 
absolute declaration of the king's pleasure; whereupon Conde, 
after the example of Marchetas, when condemned by Philip of 

1 " Interrogatoire d'un des agens du prince de Conde," Arch, cur., ser. I, 
IV, 35. Madame de Roye, Coligny's sister and mother-in-law of Louis of 
Conde, was also seized in the expectation of finding papers in her possession which 
would incriminate Conde, Lattoy, the advocate, and Bouchart, the king of Navarre's 
chancellor (Castelnau, Book II, chap, ix; La Planche, 381; Frederick, count 
palatine of the Rhine, to Elizabeth, from Heidelberg, C. S. P. For., No. 721, 
November 17, 1560; No. 737, §8, November 28, 1560; No. 781, December 7, 1560; 
De Crue, Anne de Montmorency, 282 ff.). 

2 "MM. de Guise avoient asseure le pape et le roi d'Espagne de chasser du 
royaume les huguenots; desseignent (apres le proces du prince de Conde et luy 
execute) d'envoyer de la gendarmerie et de gens de pied sous la charge des sieurs 
de Sainct Andre, Termes, Brissac et Sipierre, leurs amis, pour chasser les heretiques 
et faire obeyr le roy." — Tavannes, 257 (1560). 

3 Mem. de Conde, II, 379; Chantonnay to Philip II, November 28, K. 1,493, 
No. 108; Despatches oj Suriano (Huguenot Society), November 22; Claude Haton; 
I, 130, 131- 

69 



7© THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Macedon, appealed from the King in bad council to the King in 
good council. The prince, however, adhered to his claim, until 
by a subterfuge he was made, in a way, to commit himself; for 
at last he signed an answer to his counsel, Robert, whereby the 
prosecution gained a point prejudicial to him, although good 
lawyers affirmed that a defendant's counsel could not be made his 
judge. Thereupon the government organized a court in which 
there was a sprinkling of peers, in order to seem to comply with 
the law.^ Under such practices the judgment was a foregone 
conclusion, although even after being declared guilty, the general 
opinion was that the prince would not be put to death, but that 
the worst that could befall him would be imprisonment in the 
dungeons of Loches, where Ludovic Sforza died in the reign of 
Louis XII; or that he would be kept in confinement elsewhere 
pending greater age on the part of the king and new develop- 
ments.^ 

What Conde's fate would have been still remains a problemati- 
cal question, for Francis II died at Orleans on December 5, 1560, 
and his death put an end to all proceedings against the prince.^ 
The prince of Conde was released on December 24, and imme- 

1 This action was a legal subterfuge, as Castelnau, Book II, chap, xii, no 
friend of Conde, is honest enough to admit, citing several precedents in favor of 
Conde. Cf. La Place, 73-75; La Planche, 400-2; D'Aubigne, I, 294, 295. 

2 Despatches 0} Suriano (Huguenot Society), November 25, 1560. 

3 Francis II, always had been of a frail constitution, and in his passion for 
hunting seems to have over-exerted himself. "The constitution of his body is such 
as the physicians do say he cannot be long lived, and thereunto he hath by this too 
timely and inordinate exercise now in his youth added an evil accident." — Throck- 
morton to Elizabeth, C. S. P. For., No. 738, November 28, 1560; Chantonnay 
to Philip II, same date, K. 1,493, No. 108. He fell ill about November 20, seem- 
ingly with a catarrh (Suriano, November 20, 25), accompanied by headache and 
pain in the ear of which he died on the night of December 5 at the eleventh hour, 
although the physicians, on December i, "mistrusted no danger of his life" (C. 5. P. 
For., No. 758). Throckmorton elsewhere calls the King's disease "an impostume 
in the head." — Ibid., No. 771, December 6, 1560; cf. La Planche, 413, 418; 
D'Aubigne, I, 299. Very probably the disease was mastoiditis — an affection of 
the mastoid bone back of the ear, induced by chronic catarrh which finally 
affected the brain. Suriano says: "II corpo del morto Re e stato aperto et hanno 
trovato guasto tutto il cervello, in modo che per diligentia delli medici non si 
haveria potuto risanarlo" (December 8, 1560.) 



THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 71 

diately went to La F^re in Picardy.' The crown descended to the 
dead king's younger brother, Charles IX, a boy ten years of age. 
His accession was not an auspicious one. Well might the Venetian 
ambassador exclaim: "Vae tibi terra cujus rex puer est,"^ The 
execution of two Calvinists in Rouen on December 3 occasioned 
a riot during which the gates of the city were shut,^ and at Bordeaux 
a serious insurrection of 1,200 persons had taken place in conse- 
quence of the arrest of Conde, so that the general pardon of reli- 
gious offenders issued on January 3, 1561, was a wise step.^ All 
the plans designed and prepared for execution at Orleans were 
broken by the death of the King. The Guises were furious. ^ 

It was hoped that the new reign might be established tranquilly, 
without an appeal to arms, but there was much misgiving owing 
to "the bad spirit among the people on account of the religious 
question, and of their dislike of the existing government."^ Many 
had thought that in the event of the death of the king a general 
uprising might result throughout the realm, for religious and 

1 D'Aubigne, I, 300, and n. 2. The vidame of Chartres, who had been 
confined in the Bastille, "though allowed to take the air" (C. S. P. For., No. 
764, December 3, 1560), was released also, but died almost immediately (La 
Place, 78-79, gives a eulogy of him). See Lemoisne, "Francois de Vendome, 
vidame de Chartes," Positions de theses de I'Ecole des Charles, 1901, 89. His 
death enriched the house of Montmorency, for he left the lordship of Milly-en- 
Gatinois, worth 3,000 crowns yearly, to Damville, the constable's second son 
(C. S. P. For., No. 832, §10, December 31, 1560). The will is printed in Bib. 
de I'Ec. d. Chartes, 1849, 342; it is dated December 23. 

2 Rel. ven., I, 543. On the situation after death of Francis II see Weill, chap. ii. . 

3 C. 5'. P. For., No. 764, December 3, 1560, Edwards to Cecil from Rouen. 

4 " Lettres-patentes du roi Charles IX; pardon-general au sujet des affaires 
de religion." The Spanish ambassador had been summoned to the court that he 
might write to Philip II to stand ready to offer assistance in case of need. — Despatches 
0} Suriano [Huguenot Society], December 3, 1560; K. 1,493, ^o. 113, December 
3, 1560. Chantonnay's correspondence shows that the Spanish King was fully 
informed of the progress of events in France, which is confirmed by Throckmorton. 
"The King of Spain has given order to stay the five thousand Spaniards in the 
Low Countries who were to go to Sicily .... the posts run apace and often 
between the kings of France and Spain." — C. S. P. For., No. 737, November 
28, 1560. 

s La Place, 76; Claude Haton, I, ii6. 

^Despatches 0} Suriano (Huguenot Society), December 3, 1560. 



72 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

administrative reform, since Charles IX, being a minor, would be 
placed under the guidance of the king of Navarre, the oldest and 
nearest prince of the blood, who by consenting to the demands of 
the Huguenots, either from inclination or from inability to repress 
them, would open the door to such a course. Others believed 
that the Guises would not be put down, but that with the military 
resources concentrated around Orleans, at their disposal, they 
would seek to overawe the opposition and retain their power, find- 
ing means, through papal dispensation, to marry Mary Stuart 
to the new king.^ There was a third class who rightly surmised 
that the queen mother, if not able to estabhsh the regency in her 
favor, would play the parties against each other in such a way as 
to be able to exercise large control herself. In pursuance of 
this double course, Catherine secretly incited the king of Navarre 
and the prince of Conde, giving out that the action lately taken 
against the latter had been by the advice of the Guises. At the 
same time she gave the Guises to understand that the hard feeling 
which the Bourbon princes felt for them was contrary to her wish 
and pleasure and that it was they who had sought to compel 
the Guises to render account of their administration.^ As the 
constable seemed to command the balance of power, both the queen 
mother and the Guises began to compete for his favor,^ Catherine 

C. S. p. For., No. 773, December 6, 1560. "They have not only already 
good forces in this town at their devotion, but have sent for more men-at-arms to 
be here with all diligence .... so that if they cannot get it by good means, they 
see none other surety for themselves but to get it by such means as they can best 
devise .... if the Guise forces and party be best, they will not fail to betrap 
them all and to stand for it whatever it costs them." — C. S. P. For., No. 771, 
December 6, 1560. Catherine de Medici detested Mary Stuart. She called her 
"notre petite reinette ecossaise." 

2 Claude Haton, I, 118, 119. The Guises wanted, above all, to prevent the 
undivided regency of Catherine de Medici and even cited the Sahc law as a bar to 
such result (Chantonnay to Philip II, December 28, 1560; K. i,494, No. 12). 
They favored the regency of the pliable Antoine of Bourbon, or a combination of 
the king of Navarre and the queen mother. In either event a galaxy of the Guises 
was to surround the throne, i. e., the cardinals of Tournon and Lorraine, the duke 
of Guise, the chancellor and the two marshals Brissac and St. Andre; cf. Neg. 
Tosc, III, 434, and De Crue, Anne de Montmorency, 288-90, a good brief statement. 

3 Catherine sent the sieur de Lansac at once to the constable at Etampes 
(cf. D'Aubigne, I, 299, and n. 2) who in turn went to consult with his son, Dam- 
ville, at Chantilly, where he was kept by his wife's illness, those two in turn con- 
ferring with the princess of Conde (La Place, 76). 



THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 73 

overcoming her old enmity on account of her fear of the Guises.^ 
Between the Guises and Montmorency the enmity was too great 
for any rapprochement, so that the Guises endeavored to counter 
the coahtion of Catherine de Medici and the constable by over- 
tures to Antoine of Navarre, whose own pliant nature readily 
yielded to their blandishments, telling him that Philip II probably 
would be inclined to restore his lost kingdom of Navarre or give 
him an equivalent in Sardinia, in the event of the adoption of a 
strong Catholic policy on his part.^ 

Catherine de Medici, however, by the promptness of her action, 
and perhaps not a little owing to the unpopularity of the cardinal 
of Lorraine,^ got the better of the Guises, the government being 
organized around the queen mother and the three Bourbon princes, 
the king of Navarre, the cardinal of Bourbon, the prince of Conde 
the constable, the three Chatillons — the admiral Coligny, the car- 
dinal Odet, and D'Andelot — the duke de Montpensier and the 
prince de la Roche-sur-Yon.^ The duke of Aumale, the marquis 
of Elboeuf, the grand prior of France, and the cardinals of Lor- 
raine and Guise, all brothers of the duke of Guise and the cardinal 
of Lorraine left the court at the same time,^ but if the pride of the 
Guises was wounded, they did not show it. They were followed 

1 Despatches of Suriano (Huguenot Society), December 18, 1560. 

2 How much Antoine yielded to the temptation the following report of an 
interview between Throckmorton and the king of Navarre shows: "Throck- 
morton said that there was a bruit that the Spaniards had passage given them bv 
Bayonne and other forts of the French King. The king of Navarre said that it 
was true, and that he was about to verify the letters that are yet denied." — C. S. P. 
For., No. 732, December 31, 1560, § 7. 

On Sardinia see Rel. ven., I, 555. Even the prospect of becoming emperor 
was held out to him (ibid., I, 559; II, 76). 

3 "Although the duke of Guise is popular, above all with the nobility, yet 
everybody so detests the cardinal of Lorraine that if the matter depended upon 
universal suffrage, not only could he have no part in the government, but perhaps 
not in the world! It is cynically reported that his Right Reverend and Lordship 
took the precaution to send his favorite and precious effects early into Lorraine." — 
C. S. P. Ven., No. 221, December 16, 1560. 

4 Despatches of Suriano (Huguenot Society), December 18, 1560; Rel. ven., 
1, 433. "I found the court very much altered .... not one of the house of 
Guise." — C. S. P. For., No. 832, December 31, 1560. 

5 Claude Haton, I, 11. 



74 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

by all the companies of ordinance, both cavalry and infantry, which 
had been sent to Orleans. 

But Catherine de Medici looked farther than the present order 
of things and schemed to have the coronation effected as soon as 
possible, thinking that it would remove many difhculties alleged 
of the King's minority^ and make him of sufficient authority to ap- 
point such governors as he pleased.^ She found means to have 
it arranged in the Privy Council (March 27, 1561) that she and 
the king of Navarre, in the capacity of lieutenant-general, should 
rule jointly, the King's seal being in the custody of both and kept 
in a coffer to which each should carry a different key. This 
astute move gave Catherine exclusive guardianship of the person 
of Charles IX, and assured her at least an equal power in the 
regency.3 At the same time orders were given for the ambassadors 
and others who wished for audience to ask it of the queen mother 
through the secretaries. ^ By this new arrangement it became 
unnecessary to give account of one's business first of all either to 
the cardinal of Lorraine or the constable, or to anyone else, as 
was usually done before; but at once to address the queen, who, 
should the matter need to be referred to the council, could propose 
it and give reply according to their decision. As not one of these 

1 The law of France, by ordinance of Charles V, had for generations provided 
that the king's majority was attained when he was fourteen years of age; but the 
King's uncles claimed that the meaning of the law was that the King's majority 
was not reached until the end of his fourteenth year, i. e., upon Yas fifteenth birthday, 
which, in the case of Charles IX, would not be until June 27, 1564. This ingenious 
argument was sustained by various authors subsidized by the Guises, who went 
farther and argued away the regency of the queen mother also, in spite of the pre- 
cedents of Blanche of Castille and Anne of Beaujeu, on the ground of the Salic 
law (Chantonnay to Philip II, December 28, 1560; K. 1,494, No. 12). 

2 D'Aubigne, I, 302; Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, I, 176; Des- 
patches 0} Suriano (Huguenot Society), March 29, 1561; C. S. P. For., No. 77, 
§ 3, March 31, 1560; La Place, 120, 121; De Crue, Anne de Montmorency, 299. 

3 Cf. Viollet, Inst, polit. de la France, II, 95. 

4 The arrangement of executive offices at this time was very different from 
that of a modern government. Instead of there being a single secretary for foreign 
affairs, there were individual secretaries jor each country — one for Italy, one for 
Spain, one for Flanders, one for Germany, etc., and each one attended to his own 
business. This eliminated one more power in the government, exactly as Cath- 
erine wanted. 



THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 75 

councilors was superior to another, the power was all in Catherine's 
hands. She had played her cards well and had won. The duke 
of Guise ceased to be of influence at court and the constable "was 
satisfied to lose his authority in order to damage his enemies.'" 
France began to awaken to the fact that the queen who had led 
a life of retirement during her husband's reign, in that of her son 
was evincing that capacity for public affairs which was an heredi- 
tary possession in her family. In her quality as queen mother, 
she kept the King well in hand. She would not permit anyone 
but herself to sleep in his bed-chamber; she never left him alone. 
She governed as if she were king. She appointed to offices and 
to benefices; she granted pardon; she kept the seal; she had the 
last word to say in council ; she opened the letters of the ambassa- 
dors and other ministers. Those who used to think she was a 
timid woman discovered that her courage was great ; and that, like 
Leo X and all his house, she possessed the art of dissimulation.^ 
The Huguenots had hoped for much politically from the sudden 
revolution, and looked forward to organizing the States- General, 
while the Catholics hoped that the precautions taken during the 
elections had insured the election of men opposed to any novelty 
in the matter of religion. ^ The first session took place on Decem- 
ber 13.4 L'Hopital, the chancellor, made an eloquent and earnest 
plea in favor of harmony among the members, endeavoring to 
draw them away from religious animosities by pointing out the 
great necessity of administrative and political reform, urging that 
the root of the present evils was to be found in the miscarriage of 
justice, the burdensome taxes, the corruption of office, etc.^ 

1 Despatches oi Suriano (Huguenot Society), March 29, 1561. "The King 

is young and the constable has now a great authority in the realm But 

if they recover their authority, it is to be feared that they will use more extremity 
than they did before, and that therefore the queen cannot but fear his danger in 
this case." — C. S. P. For., No. 1,030, February 26, 1561, § 6. 

2 See the remarkable character-sketch of the Venetian ambassador in Rel. 
ven., I, 425-27. 

3 Despatches of Suriano (Huguenot Society), December 8, 1560. On the 
efforts of the Guises to control the States-General of 1560 see Weill, 40. 

4 D'Aubigne, I, 304; Paris, Negociations, 789. 
s La Place, 85, 87. 



76 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

He ascribed the religious inquietude to the degeneracy of the 
church and advocated thorough reform of it, saying that the clergy 
gave occasion for the introducing of a new religion, though he 
avoided entering into the matter of merit of its doctrines.^ He 
pointed out the needs of France and the necessity for civil and 
religious concord, and, in the peroration pleaded for earnest, 
patriotic support of the boy-King, "for there never was a father, 
no matter of what estate or condition, who ever left a little orphan 
more involved, more in debt, more hampered than our young 
prince is by the death of the kings, his father and his brother. All 
the cost and expenses of twelve or thirteen years of long and con- 
tinuous war have fallen upon him; three grand marriages are to 
to be paid for, and other things too long to tell of now; the domain, 
the aids, the salt storehouses, and part of the taille have been alien- 
ated."^ 

In spite of the efforts of the chancellor, however, to smooth 
the way, the ship of state encountered rough water at the very 
beginning. It was doubtful whether anything would come of 
the session, as the difficulties between the delegates were endless, 
partly from the diversity of their commissions and of the requests 
they had to make, partly from individual caprice. The commons 
and the clergy readily agreed to meet together, but many of the 
nobility made difficulty. Some of those of Guyenne and of some 
parts of Brittany, Normandy, and Champagne would not consent 
to treat with the government without a fresh commission, saying 
that their commission was to the late king, Francis II — an inven- 
tion of those who were not satisfied with the present government 

1 Castelnau, Book III, chap. ii. In this connection the following observation 
is of interest: "A disputation has lately been at Rome among the cardinals, and 
the Pope has had the hearing of what is the cause that France is thus rebelled from 
them. The Romans would conclude that the dissolute living of the French car- 
dinals, bishops and clergy, was the cause; but the French party and the bishop, 
who is ambassador there, say that nothing has wrought so much in France as of 
late the practice in Rome of divers of the nobility of France where they have seen 
such dissolute living of the clergymen as returning into France they have persuaded 
the rest that the clergy of Rome is of no religion." — C. S. P. For., No. 822, Decem- 
ber 28, 1560. 

2 The address is printed in extenso in (Euvres completes de VHopital, I, 375 ff. 



THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 77 

and disliked the queen's supremacy.^ Perceiving this obstacle, 
the queen sent for the president of La Rochelle and told him to 
have an autograph list made of all those v^^ho dissented and to 
bring it to her. But no one dared to be the first to sign this list. 
This was admirable adroitness on Catherine's part. She was 
playing for a large stake, because if the estates treated with the 
new government, they would in a certain way approve its legiti- 
macy by general consent. 

Finally, after a week's delay, during which the cahiers of the 
delegates were handed in and classified, deliberations were resumed. 
The three chief questions before the estates of Orleans were reli- 
gion, the finances, and the regulation of the courts of judicature. 
The three estates in order, beginning with the commons, presented 
each its cause. The orator of the third estate, an avocat du roi 
at Bordeaux, demanded a general council for the settlement of 
religious controversy; the discipline of the clergy, whom he de- 
nounced in scathing terms; their reformation in manners and 
morals; revision of justice, and alleviation of taxes. ^ As a whole, 
the commons seemed to wish for a general pardon for all the 
insurgents, and that everybody should be restored to favor; that 
the election of prelates should be regulated, so as to insure the 
nomination of fitting persons to reform the life and customs of the 
clergy; and that the revenues of the churches should be limited 
to persons appointed for that purpose.^ 

The spokesman of the noblesse, one Jacques de Silly, sieur de 
Rochefort, invoked biblical authority, besides Assyrian and classi- 
cal history, to prove that the nobility had been ordained of God 
and recognized by men of all times as the pillar of the state. The 
harangue was a carefully worded assertion of the political interests 
and claims of the nobility. Even religion was subordinated to 
their political ends, a written memorial being presented by some 

1 Suriano, December 20; D'Aubigne, I, 303, 304; La Place, 88, 109. "The 
estates assembled on December 13, but have done little or nothing; divers of them 
will not put forth such things as they were instructed in, now the king is dead." — 
C. S. P. For., No. 832, December 31, 1560. 

2 La Planche, 389-96; D'Aubigne, I, 305, 306. 

3 Cf. C. 5; P. Ven., No. 237, February 17, 1561. 



78 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



of the nobles asking for leave for each great feudal proprietor to 
ordain what worship he might choose within his lands, after the 
manner of the settlement at Augsburg in 1555 (cujus regio, ejus 
religio).'' 

The clergy naturally were in conformity with the canons and 
the Catholic ritual. They were declared to be "the organ and 
mouth" of France, much history and doctrinal writing being cited 
to prove their supremacy. Liberty of election in the matter of 




STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 
(Tortorel and Perissin) 

church offices, abolition of the abuse of the dime, which, it was 
complained, had been extorted from the church, not once, but 
four, five, six, and even nine times in a year, and prelates put in 
prison for failure to pay, to the destruction of worship in the 
churches; suppression of heresy (thus early stigmatized as la 
pretendue reformation), and royal support of the authority of the 
priest-class, were the four demands of the clerical order. ^ The 
sittings were rendered less tedious by a bold attack made upon 
the persecution of rehgion by a deputy who demanded that the 



I La Place, 93. 



2 Ihid., 93-109. 



THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 79 

Huguenots be permitted to have their own church edifices — a 
plea which was reinforced by a hot protest of the admiral Cohgny 
against an utterance of Quintin, the clerical orator,^ 

As to religion, grave questions arose. Would the toleration 
of religion occasion civil war ? Would it cause an ultimate altera- 
tion of the faith of France ? Would it, finally, alter the state, 
too ? The States- General refused to enter deeply into these 
problems. The petition of the Protestants was not mentioned. - 
In the end it was determined to grant a general pardon to all 
throughout the kingdom, without obliging anyone to retract, or 
to make any other canonical recantation^ — a proposal which was 
quite at variance with the constitution of the church and was 
regarded by Rome as exceeding the bounds of the authority of 
the King and his Council, cognizance of matters of this nature 
appertaining to ecclesiastics and not to laymen.^ The pressure 
of the third estate as well as the influence of Coligny, L'Hopital, 
and others, is discernible in this measure. For it had been deter- 
mined in the Privy Council that should the Council-General not 
be held before June, the National Council would assemble in 
France. This could not be denied to the estates who demanded 
it; and this concession apparently at first caused all the three 
estates to agree not to renounce the old rehgion. To this must 
be added another reason, viz., that although the greater part of 
the clergy, more especially the bishops, approved the old religion, 
yet many of the nobility approved the new one.'^ 

' La Place, 109; La Planche, 397; D'Aubigne, I, 307. 

2 Castelnau, Book III, chap. ii. 

3 C. S. P. Ven., No. 237, February 17, 1561. The action practically flouted 
a papal bull of November 20, 1560, convening the Council at Trent, which was 
intended to anticipate and prevent any such action as this at Orleans (La Planche, 
403)- 

4 There was also a technical argument based on the fact that in the bull of 
the Council the words "suhlata suspensione" were interpreted to rhean that the 
Pope intended to continue the Council already commenced, and that the decrees 
already made were to be valid; which offended France. The cardinal of Lorraine 
was the one who raised these difficulties, though he tried to give the opposite im- 
pression; from him came the opposition to the words of the bull (C. 5. P. Ven., 
No. 229, January 7, 1561; Despatches 0} Suriano (Huguenot Society), January 
14, 1561). 



8o THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Even more favorable action toward the Huguenots might have 
been taken if Catherine's caution and her fear of antagonizing 
the Guises too much had not acted as a restraint. The pardon 
of the government was theoretically not understood to be granted 
to those who preached the Calvinistic doctrine, nor to the King's 
judges who had authority in the cities and provinces of France 
who espoused it. But it was tacitly admitted that no one was to 
be prosecuted for heresy on this account. In Orleans the people 
worshiped in Huguenot form and in Paris — wonder of wonders — 
Catholic preachers were admonished to cease inveighing against 
"Lutherans" and Huguenots, and not to speak against their sects 
or their opinions — an order generally interpreted as consent from 
the Privy Council for all to follow such opinions about faith as 
most pleased their ideas. ^ 

A corollary to the question of religion was that touching the 
government of the church. Several excellent ordinances were 
passed for reforming the abuses of the church, particularly for 
preventing the sale of benefices. The election of the bishops 
was taken out of the King's direct jurisdiction and remitted to 
the clergy, and to satisfy the people it was added that twelve noble- 
men and twelve commoners together with the governor and judges 
of the city in which a bishop was to be elected were to unite with 
the clergy in election, giving laymen the same authority as ecclesi- 
astics. Another matter also was determined which was sure to 
displease the Pope, viz., that moneys should no longer be sent to 
Rome for the annates or for other compositions on account of 
benefices, on the ground that these charges drew large sums of 
money from the kingdom and were the cause of its poverty. Even 
the payment of the Peter's Pence was resented by some. The 
bishop of Vienne publicly asserted that it was with astonishment 
and sorrow that he observed the patience with which the French 
people endured these taxes "as if," said he, "the wax and lead of 
the King was not worth as much as the lead and the wax of Rome 
which cost so much."^ As it would have seemed strange were 

^ C. S. P. Ven., No. 237, January 23, 1561; La Place, 124-26, practically 
paraphrases the edicts. 
2 Rel. ven., I, 443. 



THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 8l 

the Pope not first informed of it, the estates elected one of the 
presidents of the Parlement to go to Rome to give an account to 
the Pope of the matter, not so much to ask it as a favor from the 
Pope as merely to state the causes which moved the government 
thus to decide. The strong inclination of many in France whose 
catholicity could not be impugned, to diminish the papal author- 
ity and assert the old Galilean liberties, is noticeable. Pontifical 
authority would have been quite at an end if the estates had 
determined to lay hands on the church property, as was desired 
by many persons. 

The two other questions before the estates were those of justice 
and finance. In the matter of the former nothing was done. For 
although there was universal dissatisfaction, the issue was too 
complicated, as all judicial offices were sold, and in order to dis- 
place those who had bought them it would have been necessary 
to reimburse the holders, which could not have been done then. 
The chances, accordingly, were that the administration of justice 
was likely to go from bad to worse. ^ 

The main work of the estates of Orleans had to do with the 
reorganization of the finances of the kingdom, the administration 
of which was intimately connected with the future governm.ent. 
The crown was over forty million francs (exceeding eighteen mil- 
lion crowns) in debt.^ 

It may be well at this point to give a short survey of the finan- 
cial policy of the French crown during the sixteenth century. 
Under Louis XII the taille, which was the principal tax, and which 
fell upon the peasant, was reduced to about six hundred thousand 
ecus, a sum little superior to the amount originally fixed under 
Charles VII. It was raised by Francis I to two millions. In the 
time of Louis XII the total revenue amounted to barely two mil- 

1 Despatches of Suriano (Huguenot Society), February 17, 1561. 

2 Castelnau, Book III, chap, ii, says 42,000,000; Throckmorton put the figures 
at 43,000,000: C. S. P. For., No. 1,032, February 26, 1561; cf. No. 988, February 
12, 1 561; Suriano, the Venetian ambassador, also gives the amount as eighteen 
million crowns {ibid., Ven., No. 237, February 17, 1561). This would approximate 
$75,000,000. 

The debt of the King to the Genoese, Germans, Milanese, Florentines, and 
Lucca amounted to 644,287 ducats {ihid.. For., No. 1,432, October 5, 1560). 



82 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

lions; his successor brouglit it up to live, the dimes of the clergy 
being included.^ When the expenses of the government came 
to exceed the receipts, Francis I had recourse to extraordinary- 
measures, that is to say, to augmentation of the taxes, to new loans, 
or to new forms of taxation. In 1539 he introduced the lottery 
from Italy, These extraordinary practices were not submitted 
to any process of approval, not even in the pays d'etat. Foreigners 
were astonished at the ease with which the king of France procured 
money at his pleasure. Francis I quadrupled the taille upon 
land, and even had the effrontery to raise it to the fifth power. In 
general the people paid without murmuring, although in 1535 an 
insurrection broke out at Lyons on account of an alteration in the 
aides demanded by the crown; and in 1542 there was a serious 
outbreak at La Rochelle owing to burdensome imposition of the 
gahelle. 

The author of the new financial measures of 1539 was the chan- 
cellor Poyet, a man of ability, who owed his advancement to the 
favor of Montmorency. Several very excellent measures are due 
to him, pre-eminently numerous ordinances relating to the inalien- 
ability of the royal domain, which he promulgated as a fundamen- 
tal law of the monarchy, a law which the weak successors of Henry 
II repudiated. He also endeavored to suppress dishonest admin- 
istration in the provinces. Thus he called to account both the 
marshal Montjean, whose exactions in the Lyonnais produced 
wide complaint, and Galiot de Genoullac, the sire d'Acir, whose 
stealings were enormous. These measures would have had a salu- 
tary effect if the administration of justice had been independent 
and honest in France. Unfortunately Poyet' s reputation for integ- 
rity was not as great as it should have been in a minister, and his 
policy made him many enemies. 

The incomes of Francis I, great as they were, did not sufiice 
for Henry II, the renewal of the war continuing to increase his 
necessities. Under him the increase of the gahelle and the tithes 
and other special taxes brought the total of the revenues up to 
six and a half million ecus, which did not yet save the King from 

I Dareste, Histoire de France, III, 456, 457. 



THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 83 

being reduced to the necessity of making alienations and loans, 
which reached on the day of his death fourteen millions of ecus, 
about thirty-six millions of francs/ 

The practice of the French government of making loans, a 
practice which has today become familiar to us on a colossal scale, 
both in Europe and America, antedates the Hundred Years' War. 
St. Louis contracted various loans with the Templars and Italian 
merchants for his crusades.^ Philip the Fair borrowed from 
Itahan merchants, from the Templars, and from his subjects. ^ 
His war with Edward I of England and his enterprises in Italy 
increased the amount, so that his sons inherited a considerable 
pubHc debt. The Hundred Years' War enormously increased 
it. We have few means of knowing what rates of interest obtained 
upon most of the public loans of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
turies, but they were probably high in most cases. Charles VIII 
in 1487 fixed the rate of interest upon a loan made in Normandy 
at twelve deniers tournois for each livre, which would not be over 
5 per cent. Seven years later, when he was preparing for the 
Italian campaign, a rate of two sous per livre obtained, which 
would be approximately equivalent to 10 per cent. 

In the time of the direct Valois kings, most of the government's 
loans were arranged in the provinces, as in Normandy and Lan- 
guedoc. But, beginning with Francis I, the city of Paris became 
increasingly the place where the crown obtained financial aid, 
so much so indeed that the supervision of the rentes of the Hotel- 
de-Ville became a separate administrative bureau of the royal 
treasury, although it must not be understood that the government's 
operations were henceforth exclusively confined to Paris ; for loans 
continued to be made wherever possible with towns, corporations, 

1 Lorenzo Contarini in 1550 speaks with satisfaction of the even balance of 
the finances; Soranzo in 1556 speaks of their disorder (cf. Ranke, Franzosische 
Geschichte, Book VII, chap, iv, n. 2). 

2 An ordinance of 1270 authorized a loan of 100,000 livres tournois for the 
crusade that culminated in disaster before Tunis. Cf. G. Servois, "Emprunts 
de St. Louis en Palestine et en Afrique, Bibliotheque de I'Ecole des Charies 
sen IV, IV, 117. Philip III borrowed of his great vassals and from the Flemish 
towns (Langlois, Le regne de Philippe le Hardi, chap. v). 

3Boutaric, La France sous Philippe le Bel, 297. 



84 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the clergy, and private loan brokers and bankers. These recites 
of the capital, it should be understood, were technically a sub- 
stitution of the credit of the city of Paris for the somewhat dubious 
credit of the crown. ^ From that date (1522) forward in France, 
government loans took the form of perpetual annuities, payable 
at the H6tel-de-Ville in Paris. But other cities, such as Orleans, 
Troyes, Toulouse, and Rouen, also furnished the King with money 
in the form of annuities. 

Aside from Paris, the church of France was the grand pillar 
of the government's finances, and as the initiation of the rentes 
is due to Francis I, so to this king also is the second expedient to 
be ascribed. In 15 16, on the occasion of the concordat, Leo X 
allowed Francis I to exact a new tenth, theoretically to be distin- 
guished from the dime of the clergy of France, the pretext being 
a war projected against the Turks. The new tithe was levied 
by the King's officers alone, on the basis of a grand survey of the 
property of the clergy {Descriptiofi generate du Men d^eglise) made 
in this year. In this financial survey the tax or quota of each 
benefice and the total of the tithe in every diocese were indicated. 
Thenceforth it was easy for numerous tithes to be levied by the 
will of the King alone. However, in order to conceal the arbi- 
trariness of this conduct, the crown sometimes indicated its pur- 
pose to Rome which issued the necessary validation, but more 
often the King addressed the clergy itself united in assemblies of 
the bishops at Paris and in provincial or diocesan assemblies. 
The consent of the clergy was nothing but a formality, for the royal 
authority fixed in advance the sum to be paid. The diocesan 
assembly had nothing to do but distribute the impost. This con- 
cession of the Pope was successively renewed, under different pre- 
texts, for a number of years, under the name of a don caratij, and 
was equivalent to another tithe, the practice, prolonged year 

I The preamble of the letters-patent of Francis I, bearing date of September 
2, 1522, makes this fact clear; for in that document alienation is made by the 
government of the "aids, gabelles and impositions" of Paris, the fees of the "grand 
butchery of Beauvais," the rates upon the sale of wine, both wholesale and retail, 
and of fish, as security for the loan made. Cf. Viihrer, Histoire de la dette puhlique 
en France, I, 15-26; Lavisse, Histoire de France, V, Part I, 241, 242. 



THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 85 

after year, at last hardening into a permanent form of taxation 
required of the clergy, so much so that under Henry II receivers 
of the "gift" were established in every diocese.^ 

Wastefulness and bad management characterized the reign of 
Henry II from the very first. The treasury was soon completely 
exhausted. A reserve of four hundred thousand ecus d'or, which 
Francis I had amassed to carry the war into Germany, with little 
owing save to the Swiss, payments to whom Francis I had con- 
tinued in order to prolong his alliance with them, was dissipated 
within a few months, and the government had resort to increased 
taxation and the creation of new taxes. The gabelle upon salt, 
from which Poitou, Saintonge, and Guyenne had hitherto been 
exempt, and which was now introduced into those provinces, 
raised a terrible revolt which was not crushed until much violence 
had been done and much blood shed. The renewal of the war 
against Charles V and the invasion of Lorraine, added to the insa- 
tiable demands of the court, required new financial expedients. 
Not less than eighteen times during the twelve years of the reign 
of Henry II were the echevins of Paris called upon to supply the 
King with sums of money. Four millions and a half were thus 
demanded of the capital. In order to obtain these sums, which 
the people refused to advance gratuitously, the King was forced 
to humiliate himself exceedingly. Thus in 1550, in a general 
assembly of the sovereign courts of the clergy and of the bourgeois 
it was reported that "the King, being obhged to give money to the 
English, and not having any money in his treasury except muti- 
lated and debased currency which could not be recoined, is under 
the necessity of offering this debased and mutilated coin as security 
for a public loan." As might be expected, this not very tempting 
offer did not entice the provost of the merchants, much to the 
chagrin of the King, who, however, consented to a short delay. 
But three years later Henry II was even less shameless. Although 
there was still just as much unwillingness on the part of the mer- 
chants of the city to take the King's notes, this little difficulty was 
easily overcome by the King's agents. If the money were not 

I Esmein, Histoire du droit jrangais, 631-34. 



86 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

forthcoming, the sideboards of the wealthy bourgeois of Paris 
contained enough gold and silver plate to answer the purpose, and 
an edict of February 19, 1553, ordered certain specified persons 
to bring to the mint their vessels of gold and of silver, for which 
the government issued its notes. 

But Paris was not the only city which was almost incessantly 
called upon to supply the King's needs. Each year, and even 
each month, was characterized by a new demand, and numbers 
of the cities of France were from time to time taxed for sums which 
were not secured, however, without resistance to the royal treas- 
urers. Lyons, which was at this epoch the seat of a commerce 
greater even than that of Paris, was more often mulcted than any 
other in this way. Conduct so high-handed naturally resulted 
not only in creating bitterness against the government, but demoral- 
ized trade as well. The credit of the government depreciated to 
such an extent that the rate of interest rose as high as 14 per cent.^ 
During the twelve years of Henry II 's reign a greater amount in 
taxes had been imposed upon the people of France than in the 
fourscore years preceding, besides which many of the crown lands 
had been dissipated. Naturally "hard times" prevailed.^ 

1 Viihrer, Histoire de la dette publique en France, I, 22-25. 

2 Gold was at a premium, the payments for gold crowns and pistolets being 
above their valuation. All foreign coins were rated high: English "rose" nobles = 
6 francs, 12 sous; "angels" =4 francs, 6 sous; imperials and Phillipes were current 
at the same rate as "angels" (C 5. P. For., No. 1,076, February 20, 1561). The 
gold crown was passable at 51 francs tournois; the pistolet gold and weight, 49 
francs {ibid.. No. 886, January 17, 1561). Prices of commodities were also high. 
The duke of Bedford, who came over in February 1561 as a special envoy of Eliza- 
beth, reports, February 26: "France is the dearest countr}- I ever came in." — 
Ibid., No. 1,031. Cf. the confession of Richard Sweete, an English fugitive in 
France, who was forced to return home on account of "hard times." "Within one 
month they came back from Paris, partly upon the death of the French king and 
partly for that victuals were there so dear that they could not live." — Ibid., II, 
No. 36, October 5, 1559. 

Without attempting to go at length into the intricate subject of the various 
kinds of money current in France in the sixteenth century, something yet is to be 
said upon the subject in order to make clear the working of these and other economic 
sources. In the si.xteenth century, as during the Middle Ages, the standard of 
value was the livre tournois, divided into sous and denier s (i HATe = 20 sous; i 
sou = 12 deniers). The livre tournois was really a hypothetical coin and was merely 



THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 87 

Some members of the States- General were for bringing the 
officers of finance to account and obliging them to submit the list 
of all the grants which had been made in favor of the great and 
influential at the court of Henry II, But the cooler element 
thought that this policy could not be followed out on account of 
the powerful position of those involved and that occasion for new 

used as a unit of calculation. The French gold coin was the ecu d' or which varied 
in value between i livre, 16 sous, and 2 livres, 5 sous. In 1561 it was equivalent 
to 2 livres in round numbers. The lesion was a silver coin of a value of 10 or 11 
sous and was sometimes called a crown or a franc by the English. The sou ori- 
ginally was made of an amalgam of silver and copper and the denier or penny of 
red copper. 

The English during their long occupation of Normandy in the fifteenth century, 
and owing to their commercial communication with Flanders, introduced the 
pound sterling or "estrelin" (easterling) (Du Cange, Glossarium, s. v. "Esterlingus;" 
Ruding, Annals 0} the Coinage, I, 7; Le Blanc, Traite historique des monnaies 
de France, 82). Though much more stable than other coinage — except the Vene- 
tian ducat and the florin — it nevertheless slowly depreciated. Elizabeth in 1561 
rechristened it the gold "sovereign." It was worth about 8 livres tournois in 1561 
(Avenel, "La fortune mobiliere dans I'histoire," Revue des deux mondes, July 15, 
1892, 784, 785). The French peasantry still in certain parts of France estimate in 
terms of ancient coinage. The pistole, by origin a Spanish coin current in Flanders 
and the Milanais, was forbidden circulation as far back as Louis XIV. Yet the 
peasants of Lower Normandy at the cattle fairs today will estimate the price of 
their animals in ancient terms. Similarly the Breton peasantry talk of reaux 
(real), the last vestige of Brittany's commercial relations with Spain (Avenel, 
op. cit., 783). 

The actual value of these coins in modern terms has been much debated. 
M. de Wailly estimated the value of the livre tournois in 1561 at 3 francs, 78 cen- 
times. The vicomte d' Avenel thinks these figures too high and has adopted 3 
francs, 11 centimes as a mean value for the years between 15 61 and 1572. M. 
Lavasseur prefers the round number of 3 francs. On the basis of the last estimate 
one sou would be equivalent to 15 centimes and i denier to 1.2 centimes in terms 
of modern French money. But these figures mean nothing until the purchasing 
power of money at this time is established. In this particular, estimates have 
varied all the way from 3 to 12 and even to 17 and 20. M. Lemmonier inclines to 
the ratio of 5 for the middle of the sixteenth century. For an admirably clear and 
succinct account of the value of French money in the sixteenth century, see Lavisse, 
Histoire de France, Vol. V, Part I, pp. 266-69. Larger references will be found 
in the bibliography appended to the chapter. 

But whatever the ratio may have been, the decline in the purchasing power 
of money was great. Between 1492 and 1544 Europe imported 279 millions worth 
(in francs) of gold and silver. In the single year 1545, when the famous mines 
of Potosi were opened, 492^000,000 francs' worth were brought into Europe. The 



88 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

commotions only would ensue.' Instead, retrenchment was 
resolved upon. The stipends of the gentlemen of the King's 
household and of the gens de finance were reduced one-half and 
all pensions were abridged one-third,^ except in the case of foreign- 
ers in the King's service, who were supposed to have no other 
source of income. This last provision created an outcry, on the 
ground that foreigners could only be so employed in time of war, 
save in the case of the Scotch Guard. ^ Even this was cut down, 
one hundred men-at-arms and one hundred archers being dis- 
missed. The royal stables and mews were also broken up and 
the horses and falcons sold.^ 

Something more constructive than mere economy, however, 
was necessary, and the burden of paying the King's debts fell 
heaviest upon the clergy. This was partly owing to the great 
wealth of the church ; partly to the fact that the clergy had rushed 
in where others feared to tread, and, officiously asserting their 
superiority in matters of state as well as of church, had proceeded 

purchasing power of money is estimated to have fallen one-quarter between 1520 
and 1540 and one-half by the year 1600. After the peace of Cateau-Cambresis 
when peaceful relations were renewed between France and Spain, France particu- 
larly felt the disturbing effect of the new conditions. According to the vicomte 
d'Avenel {op. cit.), from 1541-61 the livre tournois was valued at 3 francs, 34 
centimes; from 1561-72 at 3 francs, 11 centimes; from 1575-79 ^^ ^ francs, 
88 centimes. "Un capital de 1,000 livres qui valait 22,000 francs en 1200, n'en 
valait plus intrinsequement que 16,000 en 1300; 7,530 en 1400; 6,460 en 1500, et 
etait tombe en 1600 a 2,570 francs." — Revue des deux mondes, July 15, 1892, 800. 
One is astonished not to find greater complaints about the "hard times" 
in the chronicles and other sources of the period. To be sure, the misery did not 
reach its acutest stage until the time of the League, when the difference between 
the price of food stuffs and daily wages was outrageous. For example, since 1500 
the wage of the laboring man had increased but 30 per cent., whereas the price of 
grain had increased 400 per cent. At the accession of Louis XII, wheat had cost 
four francs per hectolitre and the peasant earned sixteen centimes a day; at the 
accession of Henry IV (in 1590), wheat sold for twenty francs per hectolitre and the 
daily wage of the. peasant was but seventy-eight centimes (Avenel, "Le pouvoir de 
I'argent," Revue des deux mondes, April 15, 1892, 838). 

1 Castelnau, Book III, chap. ii. 

2 La Planche, 112; C. S. P. For., No. 990, February 12, 1561. 

3 La Planche, 113. 

■♦ C. S. P. For., No. 889, January 16, 1561 ; No. 890, February 12, 1561. 



THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 89 

to examine the royal accounts, which the nobles and the commons 
were too wary to inspect.' The nobles took the ground that they 
were not concerned in the matter of paying the King's debts, 
claiming that they paid their dues to the crown by personal service 
in war time.^ 

As far back as the assembly at Fontainebleau far-sighted coun- 
cilors of the king had pointed out that the revenues of the church 
would have to be made to do duty for the government, and inter- 
course with Rome had been under way looking to such an arrange- 
ment.3 The Pope was not as bitterly opposed to such a policy 
as one might at first be led to think, for he was thoroughly fright- 
ened at the prospect of a national council of the French clergy 
being convened in France and was disposed to be accommodat- 
ing. But of course a roundabout method had to be resorted to, 
for the church would not have suffered a barefaced taxation of 
ecclesiastical revenues by the political authority. The resulting 
arrangement was in the nature of a political "deal." Upon the 
understanding that no French council should be convened, the 
French crown was permitted to appropriate three hundred and 
sixty thousand ducats per annum for five years from the incomes 
of the church,^ the condition of the subsidy, theoretically, being 
that France was to maintain a fleet to serve against the Turks. ^ 

When these things had been done and the King had received 
in writing the doUances and requests of the three orders, the States- 
General were prorogued^ until the first of May, to meet at Pontoise 

I C. S. p. Ven., No. 237, February 17, 1561. = La Place, 121. 

3 "They mean to levy the greatest subsidy that was ever granted in France. 
The chief burden rests with the clergy, who give eight-tenths; the lawyers, mer- 
chants, and common people are highly rated also. They reckon to levy 18,000,000 
francs." — C. S. P. For., No. 483, September 3, 1560. 

4 "The Pope has given faculty to the King to sell of the revenues of the church 
by the year, and has granted the like to the French King, meaning to serve them to 
execute .... the order now to be taken at the General Council." — Ibid., No. 777, 
December 7, 1560, from Toledo. A similar arrangement was made in Spain with 
Philip II, in order to restore his depleted finances. 

5 Ibid., No. 850, January i, 1561. 

6 The ordonnance of the King proroguing the estates did not appear until a 
month later, March 25, 1561. 



90 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

in order to complete the settlement of affairs/ for time was neces- 
sary to make the arrangements with the church, since the prelates 
present had not been commissioned to enter into such a compact. 

I La Place, iii; C. S. P. For., No. 938, February 12, 1561. In a letter dated 
January 22, 1561, to Peter Martyr, Hotman gives an admirable account of the session 
of the States- General at Orleans. See Dareste, "Franjois Hotman," Mem. de 
I' Acad, des sc. moral, et polit., CIV, 654-56. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE FORMATION OF THE TRIUMVIRATE 

The factional rivalry which had been engendered during the 
course of the session of the States-General at Orleans was so great 
that this discord, combined with the agitation prevailing on account 
of religion, seemed ominous of civil war, and "every accident was 
interpreted according to the passions of the persons concerned."^ 
The affair of the custody of the seal created bitter feeling for a 
time between the duke of Guise and the king of Navarre, until the 
former out of policy and the latter either from policy or lack of 
courage, affected to become reconciled. The Guises realized that 
they had suffered a serious blow politically through the death of 
Francis II and Catherine was shrewd enough to know that while 
she controlled the seal, she was the keeper of the King's authority. 
The prince of Conde was a double source of friction. In the first 
place, his trial for treason was still pending before the Parlement 
of Paris. ^ The queen mother was anxious to have the cause 
settled out of court, for if condemned (which was unlikely) the 
whole Bourbon family would be disgraced as formerly through 
the treason of the constable Bourbon in 1527, and if acquitted, 
the prince would not rest until he had been avenged of his enemies. 
Accordingly, she caused a letter to be written in the King's name 
instructing the Parlement to dismiss the case. But the mettle- 
some spirit of the prince resented this process, and his discontent 
was increased to furious anger when the duke of Guise recom- 
mended that all the evidence be burned and prosecution be dropped, 
although his opinion was that legally Conde could not be acquitted 
as the trial so far had proved him to have been implicated in the 
revolt of Lyons.3 To both parties Catherine de Medici steadily 
replied that she had written the letter in order to adjust the affairs 
of the prince of Conde to his honor and to the satisfaction of all, 

1 Despatches of Suriano (Huguenot Society), March 1, 1561. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 49, March 18, 1561. 

3 Ihid., Ven., No. 242, March 3, 1561. 

91 



92 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

and that the seal was in her hands. On March 1 5 the prince was 
readmitted to the Privy Council; but the Parlement was not dis- 
posed to drop the case so easily and deliberated at length upon 
the matter, finally on June 13, going on record, in a delicately 
balanced pronouncement which was intended to please all parties 
concerned and satisfied none.' 

A new source of friction was the vacant government of Cham- 
pagne which the queen gave to the duke of Nemours. This offended 
Antoine of Navarre, because he wanted to have it conferred 
upon the prince of Conde.^ To these dissensions, finally, must 
be added a recent ruling of the Privy Council, in compliance with 
one of the resolutions of the States- General, that all bishops, 
including the cardinals, were to return to their sees.^ This regu- 
lation eliminated some of the leaders of both parties, the cardinal 

1 La Place, 129; La Popeliniere, I, 244; De Thou, IV, 66, 67. The king of 
Navarre, most of the princes of the blood, cardinals, and nobles being present, 
chief among whom were the duke of Guise and the cardinal of Lorraine. The 
prince was declared innocent, all the information brought against him was pro- 
nounced false and the letters, forgeries. This rehabilitation was also extended 
to the vidame of Chartres and Madame de Roye, Coligny's sister and mother of 
the princess of Conde, and the parlementary arret was ordered to be proclaimed in 
all the courts of parlement of the realm (C S. P. For., No. 265, § 8, June 23, 1561). 

2 Neg. Tosc, III, 467, and note. 

3 Ordonnance generale .... des etats assembles a Orleans, p. 5; Isambert, 
XIV, 65. In pursuance of this legislation the cardinal of Lorraine resigned a few 
of his pluralities. He gave the bishopric of Metz to his brother, the cardinal of 
Guise, and retained for himself the archbishopric of Rheims, with the Abbeys of 
St. Remy and St. Denis (Claude Haton, I, 234). On April r, 1561, the action of 
the States-General was affirmed in a royal edict which commanded the bishops to 
return to their dioceses and there reside under pain of seizure of their temporalities, 
and in every bailiwick in France inventories were to be made of the whole revenues 
of the priest (Isambert, XIV, loi). It was followed by an edict dealing with the 
administration of the hospitals and support of the poor {ibid., 105), designed to 
put an end to corrupt practice on the part of unprincipled and avaricious priests 
who did not wish to reside at home and so sold their cures to presbyters. Those 
who had numerous benefices found means to excuse themselves from residence in 
their cures, in virtue of an article of the edict, which provided that ecclesiastics who 
had numerous cures, which they held par dispense, or other benefices or charges 
requiring actual residence in some other church, and who could not by this means 
reside in their parishes, by residing in one of the parishes or other churches in which 
they had a benefice or office requiring residence, were exempt from residing in their 
other cures, provided that they committed them to the care of capable vicars. In 



FORMATION OF THE TRIUMVIRATE 93 

of Lorraine on the one hand and the cardinal de Chatihon on the 
other, to the discomfiture of both parties. Only the cardinal 
Tournon, whose great age made him harmless and who really 
wanted to pass the rest of his life in retirement, and the cardinal 
of Bourbon whose easy disposition also made him harmless, were 
permitted to stay with the court. 

Philip II of Spain had been an attentive follower of all that had 
happened in France since the early autumn of 1560 and had been 
kept thoroughly informed by his indefatigable ambassador. His 
disquietude over the death of Francis II and the new direction of 
affairs in France was so great^ that in January Philip sent Don 
Juan de Manrique, his grand master of artillery, to Orleans, osten- 
sibly to perform the office of condolence and congratulation,^ but 
in reality to win over the constable, to harden the policy of the 
French government toward the Huguenots, to persuade it against 
the project of a national council,^ and to promote Philip's pur- 
virtue of this article they were permitted the enjoyment of their revenues after 
having satisfied the king's officers in each bailiwick. Cf. Claude Haton, I, 221, 
222. The revenues of hospitals were assumed control of by the government, and 
the administration' thereof was committed to the care of special administrators. 
Local judicial officers instead of the clergy, as formerly, were to supervise the 
distribution of money, wood, wine, and provisions, to priors, monks, nuns, and 
the poor. 

The hospitals of various towns of France and in particular the hotels-dieu 
at Paris and Troyes, had already, even before this, been governed by lay com- 
missioners. For a complaint of bad administration of the Hotel-Dieu at Provins 
by the lay officers, who enriched themselves at the expense of the poor, and let the 
house run down, for which reason the King was requested to restore the adminis- 
tration to the clergy, see Claude Haton, I, 223. 

I The letter which the bishop of Limoges, the French ambassador in Madrid, 
wrote "apres la mort de Francois II," detailing the Spanish monarch's fear, is 
almost prophetic (Paris, Negociations relatives au regne de Francois II, 782-85). 

^ Philip II, to Charles IX, January 4, 1561, K. 1,495, ^^- ^S! to Mary Stuart, 
January 7, K. 1,495, No. 17; C. S. P. For., No. 870, January 10, 1561. He arrived 
on the evening of January 23. Cf. Don Juan de Manrique and Chantonnay to 
Philip II, January 28, 1561, K. 1,494, No. 55, giving an account of his reception 
at the French court. He left about February 10, 1561 (C. S. P. For., Nos. 933, 
January 23, 1561, and 984, February 11, 1561). 

3C. S. P. For., No. II, March 4, 1561; Despatches of Suriano (Huguenot 
Society), February 19, 1651. A letter of December 26, 1560, to the King, pub- 
lished in the Revue d'hist. diplomatique, XIII, No. 4 (1899), 604, "Depeches de 
Sebastien de I'Aubespine," states the real mission of Don Juan de Manrique. 



94 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

poses regarding the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots, to Don 
Carlos, Philip's son, 

Catherine de Medici soon divined both the purpose and the 
danger, and her alarm was correspondingly great, because the 
increasing confusion in the realm on account of religion every day 
made Spanish intervention more possible.' One of two results 
seemed certain to happen: either that things would end with the 
Huguenots having churches in which they could preach, read, and 
perform their rites according to their doctrine without hindrance, 
as they had temporarily obtained churches by the declaration of 
Fontainebleau, at the end of August, in compliance with the reso- 
lution presented by the admiral ; or else that obedience to the Pope 
and to the Catholic rites would be enforced at the point of the 
sword, and a manifest and certain division in the kingdom would 
result, with civil war as the consequence. When Francis II died, 
a great number who had fled to Geneva and Germany after the 
conspiracy of Amboise came back to France. For the government 
of Charles IX had inaugurated the new reign by a declaration of 
toleration (January 7, 1561) which, although Calvin disapproved 
it,^ may yet with reason be regarded as a liberal edict. The Prot- 
estants were not slow to profit by the change, and flocked back 
from Switzerland and Germany and resumed their propaganda, 
one phase of which was a vilification of Rome and the Guises to 
such an extent that the King protested to the Senate of Geneva 
regarding their abuse.^ Paris soon abounded with Huguenot 
preachers from Geneva, who relied upon the division in the coun- 
cil or the protection of persons in power for the maintenance of 
the new edict. ^ 

^ The queen mother to the bishop of Rennes, April ii, 1561, Correspondance 
de Catherine de Media's, I, 186. The latter's reply is in Paris, Negociations, etc., 
871, May 26, 1561. Cf. Castelnau, I, 555. 

= Lacombe, Catherine de Medicis entre Guise et Condi, 108. The edict was 
actually a confirmation of the edict of Romorantin. See Mem. de Conde, II, 266; 
text of the Edict of Romorantin in Isambert, XIV, 31. 

3 Letter of Charles IX, January 23, 1561, Opera Calvini, XVIII, 337. The 
reply of the senate under date of January 28 is at 343-45. 

4 C. S. P. Ven., Nos. 250, 272, April, 1561. Coligny's house was a favorite 
rendezvous. He never went to mass, and when his wife gave birth to a child in 
the spring of 1561 he had it baptized openly in the popular tongue, according to 
the Calvinist form (C. S. P. For., Nos. 933, 984, 1561). 



FORMATION OF THE TRIUMVIRATE 95 

In some provinces, such as Normandy/ Touraine, Poitou, 
Gascony/ and the greater part of Languedoc, Dauphine, and 
Provence, congregations and meetings v^ere openly held. Guyenne 
save Bordeaux, was badly infected with heresy. ^ The new religion 
penetrated so deeply that it aiJected every class of persons, 
even the ecclesiastical body itself, not only priests, friars, 
and nuns, but even bishops and many of the principal prelates. 
Among all classes there were Huguenot sympathizers, the nobility 
perhaps more manifestly than any other class. "^ The congregations 
of Rouen and Dieppe sent to the King for hcense to preach the 
word of God openly. In Dieppe the Calvinists once a day met 
in a great house, "of men, women and children above 2,000 in 
company. "5 There were Huguenot outbursts at Angers, Mans, 
Beauvais, and Pontoise, in April, and at Toulouse in June.^ At 
Beauvais when the cardinal of Chatillon, who was bishop there, 
caused the Calvinist service to be conducted and communion 
administered in his chapel, "after the manner of Geneva," the 
canons and many of the people "assembled to good numbers to 
have wrought their wicked wills upon the cardinal." Some were 
hurt and killed in the trouble, and one poor wretch was brought 
before the cardinal's gate and burned.'' A similar riot took place 
in Paris, on April 28, in the evening, near the Pre-aux-Clercs. 

As a result of these excesses things took a sterner turn. A 
new measure interdicted Huguenot meetings, even in private 
houses; and all persons of every condition in Paris were required 

1 For the rise of Protestantism in Normandy see Le Hardy, Histoire du pro- 
testantisnte en Normandie depuis son orlgine jusqu' a la publication de I' Edit de 
Nantes, Caen, 1869; Lessens, Naissance et progres de I'heresie de Dieppe, 1557- 
160Q: Publication faite pour la lere fois d'apres le MS de la biblioth. publ. av. 
une introd. et des notes, Rouen, 1877; Hauser, "The French Reformation and the 
Popular Classes," American Historical Review, January, 1899. 

2 Archives de la Gironde, XIII, 132; XVII, 256. 

3 "There is not one single province uncontaminated," wrote Suriano, the 
Venetian ambassador on April 17, 1561 (C S. P Ven., 272). 

4 See a long letter of Hotman published by Dareste in Rev. hist., XCVII, 
March-April, 1908, p. 299. 

s C. S. P. For., 857, January i, 1561. 

6 Neg. Tosc, III, 456. 

7 C. S. P. For., No. 124, April 20, 1561. 



96 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

to observe the Catholic rehgion,^ The attitude of Paris was omi- 
nous for the future. The populace was wholly Cathohc and 
hostile to religious change,^ and was strongly supported by the 
Sorbonne and the Parlement.^ The Sorbonne freely let it be under- 
stood that it would never obey any order issued to the injury of 
the Cathohc rehgion, asserting that whenever the crown changed 
faith and religion, the people were absolved from the oath of fealty 
and were not bound to obey.^ The words "civil war" were on 
the lips of all who were attentively observing events. "Between 
the two parties, justice is so little feared," wrote the duke of Bed- 
ford, "and policy has so little place that greater things are to be 
dreaded. "5 

The responsibility for the government's vacillation at this 
season is not to be imputed wholly to Catherine de Medici.^ It 
is to be remembered that France was under a double regency, and 
that the weakness of the king of Navarre materially embarrassed 
affairs. At this moment he seeined to be inchned toward the 
faith of Rome in the hope of conciliating Philip II of Spain, in 
order to recover the kingdom of Navarre. The Spanish ambas- 
sador and the Guises naturally made the most of his aspiration, 
the former telling Antoine that although it was impossible to obtain 
what he claimed from His Catholic Majesty by mere force, he 
might make a fair agreement with Philip by maintaining France 
in the true faith.'' 

During these months of tension and tumult, the ambassador 

I C. S. p. For., No. 155, April 30; C. S. P. Ven., No. 255, May 2, and No. 
258, May 14, 1561. 

^ Suriano says this hostility of Paris toward Protestantism was greater, per- 
haps, because it was favored by the nobles, who were naturally hated — "la plebe 
di questa Citta che per professione e nemica dalle nove sette, forse perche sono 
favorite dalli nobili, li quali sono odiati per natura." — Op. cit., May 2, 1561. Cf. 
May 16, ab init. (Huguenot Society of London). 

3 "Requete de la Sorbonne au roi," K. 1,495, No. 74, without date but seem- 
ingly of this time. 

4C. 5. P. Ven., No. 259, May 16, 1561. 

5 Ibidfj For., No. 158, April, 1561; cf. No. 124, April 20, 1561. 

6 Correspondance de Catherine de M edicts, I, 188, and n. i. 

7 C. S. P. Ven., No. 259, May 16, 1561. 



FORMATION OF THE TRIUMVIRATE 97 

worked out a scheme, which in principle was that of PhiHp II, 
but the details were of Chantonnay's own arrangement. The 
aim was to form a group of influential persons at the court, who 
should begin by complaints of the government's policy and then 
proceed to threats and dark hints of the displeasure of Spain, 
finally presenting a bold front to Catherine, and compelhng her 
to abandon her policy of temporizing and moderation. The 
constable Montmorency was the objective leader of this cabal, 
and his persuasion to the enterprise was one of the secret purposes 
of the mission of Don Juan de Manrique. While this envoy bore 
letters expressing Philip's esteem to all the most notable Catholics 
at the French court, there was a distinction between them. The 
king of Spain wrote in common to the duke of Guise, the constable, 
the duke of Montpensier, the chancellor, and the marshals St. 
Andre and Brissac,^ and a joint note to the cardinals of Lorraine 
and Tournon.^ But Montmorency and St. Andre each also 
received a separate letter. The discrimination shows the won- 
derfully keen penetration of Philip's ambassador, for these two 
were destined to be two of the three pillars of the famous Trium- 
virate. ^ In reply the cardinal of Lorraine hastened to inform 
Philip II of his deep interest in maintaining the welfare of Cathol- 
icism.4 But it required time and adroitness to overcome the 
constable's prejudice against Spain, and his attachment to his 
nephews. 5 

In the meantime, before the constable was persuaded, the cabal 
made formidable headway by winning Claude de I'Aubespine to 
its cause. This paved the way for an action which, if Catherine 
de Medici could have known it, would have thrown her into con- 
sternation indeed. For Claude de I'Aubespine's brother Sebastian, 
the bishop of Limoges, was Charles IX's ambassador in Spain. 
On April 4, 1561, the latter addressed a secret letter to PhiHp II 

I January 4, 1561; K. 1,495. No. 15. ^ ihid., No. 16. 

3 On the whole see De Crue, Anne de Montmorency, 294, 295. 

4 January 31, 1561; K. 1,494; No. 21. 

5 For an example of Chantonnay's way of working see De Crue, 296, 297, 
and the letters in K. 1,494, No. 54, January 15, 1561, and No. 56, February i, 1561. 



98 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of Spain describing the turmoil in France and thanking him, 
in the queen's name, for the "bons et roiddes offices" of 
Chantonnay.^ 

Coincident with this event, things in France had come to a 
head precisely as Philip and his ambassador had planned to have 
them. At this juncture Montmorency took a decisive stand. 
When the constable saw that meat was being freely eaten during 
these Lenten days; that Protestant service was held in the cham- 
bers of the admiral and the prince of Conde; that Catherine de 
Medici invited Jean de Montluc, the heretic bishop of Valence, 
to preach at court on Easter Sunday, the old warrior's spirit rose 
in revolt. In vain his eldest son, the marshal Montmorency, 
pleaded that his father's fears were exaggerated and his prejudices 
too deep-seated. The old man was firm in his convictions, in 
which he was sustained by his wife, Madeleine of Savoy, a bitter 
adversary of Calvinism.^ Moreover, the political as well as reli- 
gious demands of the Huguenot party, especially the demands of 
certain of the local estates, which advocated drastic reform, alarmed 
him. The whole power of the political Huguenots was directed 
against the constable, the duke of Guise, the cardinal of Lorraine, 
and the marshals Brissac and St. Andre, the leaders of the party 
being determined to call them to account for their peculations 
during the reign of Henry II and his successor, and to force them 
to surrender the excessive grants which had been given them.^ 

On the evening of April 6, 1561, Montmorency, after having 
expostulated with the queen, invited the duke of Guise, the duke 
de Montpensier, the prince of Joinville, the marshal St, Andre, 
and the cardinal Tournon to dine with him. In his apartments 

1 This important document which has not been published by M. Louis Paris, 
or elsewhere that I can find, is in K. 1,494, No. 70 (printed in Appendix II). 

2 La Place, 122, 123. 

3 This is the judgment of both Catholic and Huguenot historians; e. g., Castel- 
nau, Book III, chap, v, and Eenoist, Historie de I'edit de Nantes, Book I, 29, who 
says that the chief motive of St. Andre and the constable in forming the Trium- 
virate was fear of being compelled to pay back the immense sums which they had 
embezzled. Yet the constable in 1561 was a poor man as the result of the heavy 
sums of ransom he and his house had been obliged to pay during the late war. See 
De Crue, Anne de Montmorency, 236. 



FORMATION OF THE TRIUMVIRATE 99 

that famous association named by the Huguenots the Triumvirate, 
in which the constable, Guise, and St. Andre were principals, was 
formed.^ 

The preparations of the Guises during the former year enabled 
the Triumvirate rapidly to lay its plans^. Spanish, Italian, Ger- 
man, and Swiss forces could be counted upon and procured within 
a very short time. These forces were to be divided under the 
command of the duke of Aumale and the three marshals, Brissac, 
Termes, and St. Andre. In order to support these troops, the 
Catholic clergy were to be assessed according to the incomes they 
enjoyed; cardinals 4,000 to 5,000 hvres per annum; bishops 
1,000 to 1,200; abbots 300 to 400, priors 100 to 120; and so on 
down to chaplains, whose annual stipend was but 30 livres, and 
who were only assessed a few sous. But as some immediate means 
were necessary, the gold and the silver of some of the churches, 
and the treasure of certain monasteries was to be appropriated 
at once, receipts being given for the value of the gold taken, and 
promise being made that reimbursement would be made shortly 
out of the confiscations made from the heretics.^ 

Catherine de Medici's plan to govern through the constable 
Montmorency and the admiral,^ leaving Antoine of Navarre only 
nominal authority, received an abrupt shock when the Trium- 
virate was established. Her policy partook of both doubt and 
fear, and vacillated more than ever.^ 

But more formidable than the project to organize insurrection 
at home, thus promoted by the Triumvirate, was the foreign policy 
it adopted. The Triumvirate formally appealed to Philip II for 

1 La Place, 123; Ruble, ITI, 71; De Crue, 303; Chantonnay to Philip II, 
April 7, K. 1,494, B. 12, 73; April 9, B. 12, 75. Cf. Memoires de Condi, III, 
210 ff.: "Sommaire des choses premierement accordees entre les dues de Mont- 
morency, Connestable et De Guyse, . . . . et le Mareschal Sainct Andre, pour 
la Conspiration du Triumvirate, et depuis mises en deliberation a 1' entree du 
Sacre et Sainct Concile de Trente, et arrestee entre les Parties en leur prive Conseil 
faict centre les Hereticques et contre le Roy de Navarre en tant qu'il gouverne et 
conduit mal les affaires de Charles IX." 

2 La Planche, 454. 

3 Neg. Tosc, III, 448. 

4 Rel. ven., 1, 534. 



lOO THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

aid.' The response was not slow in forthcoming, though the 
royal word was prudently couched in vague terms. ^ To make 
matters worse, Antoine of Navarre inclined more than ever toward 
the faith of Rome in the hope of conciliating Philip II of Spain."* 
To a man less vain and gullible than Antoine of Bourbon 
such a proposition, upon its very face, as the restoration of 
Navarre, would have appeared to have been preposterous. 
Aside from the blow to its prestige which any loss of territory 
entails upon a nation, it is only necessary to look at the 
position of Spanish Navarre to perceive that Spain could 
better afford to lose a war abroad than to part with this key 
to the passes of the western Pyrenees. There is no need to relate 
at length the story of Antoine's alternate hopes and fears, of his 
great expectations, and of the empty promises made him.^ The 
office Antoine held, not the man, made him important to France 
and Spain. For this reason, he was alternately wheedled and 
cajoled, mocked and threatened, for more than a year; and all 
the time the pitiable weakling shifted and vacillated in his policy. ^ 
It is amazing to see how successfully Antoine was led along by the 
dexterous suggestions of Chantonnay, and the evasive answers 
of Philip II. It was a delicate game to play, for there was con- 
tinual fear lest he would discover that he was being made the dupe 
of Spain, and prevail upon the queen mother and the prince of 
Conde to join him in avenging his wrongs, a not impossible devel- 

1 The original letter is preserved in the Musee des Archives Nationales, No. 
665. See the Memoires de Conde, III, 395. 

2 Philip II to the constable, the cardinal of Lorraine, and Antoine of Navarre, 
April 14 and June 12, 1561, Archives nat., K. 1,495, ^- i3» 33^ 44- Admission of 
this step thus early is made in the Memoires du due de Guise, ed. Michaud et Pou- 
joulat, ser. I, V, 464. The Huguenots were early apprised of it by the intercep- 
tion of a messenger of the Triumvirate near Orleans. Cf. Brej discours et 
veritable des principalles conjurations de la maison de Guyse, Paris, 1565, 5, 6. 

3 C. S. P. Ven., No. 259, May 16, 1561. 

4 Cf. De Ruble, Antoine de Bourbon et Jeanne d'Alhret, III, 251 ff. 

s On Palm Sunday (1561) Antoine went to mass, for which Pius IV hastened 
to congratulate him and the church (K. 1,494, No. 74, April 8, 1561), and for some 
time after Easter he continued to go to mass, and refrained from eating flesh on the 
days prohibited by the church (C. 5. P. For., No. 248, May 18, 1561). But within a 
month, he is discovered having public preaching in his house by a Protestant minis- 
ter, and "daily service in the vulgar tongue" {ibid., No. 265, §13, June 23, 1561). 



FORMATION OF THE TRIUMVIRATE loi 

opment, as Granvella observed, "considering that prudence does 
not always preside over the actions of men."' 

The game was the more difficult because Antoine wanted the 
restoration of his kingly title more than anything else. If he had 
been willing to become vassal to Spain, as Chantonnay said to 
St. Andre, there were a thousand ways to satisfy him. But Spain 
could not think of alienating any of her provinces, least of all any 
frontier possession like Navarre or Roussillon.^ Time and again 
the prince of Conde told his brother he was a fool to be so wheedled, 
and Jeanne d'Albret sarcastically said that she would let her son 
go to mass when his father's inheritance was restored.^ When 
the game was likely to be played out, and Antoine, discovering 
that fine words did not butter parsnips, began to complain or boldly 
to bluster, 4 a possible substitute for the kingdom of Navarre which 
Antoine did not want to hold as a Spanish dependency^ was sug- 
gested. At one moment it was Sienna; at another the county of 
Avignon ; at a third the crown of Denmark — to be gotten through 
the influence of the Guises. The most alluring offer in Antoine's 
eyes, however, was Sardinia.^ In return for the crown of Sardinia, 

1 "Como todas actiones no se goviernan siempre con la razon." — Granvella 
to Philip II, May 13, 1561, Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VI, 541. 

2 Chantonnay's letter of April 18, 1562, is almost entirely given up to a report 
of a conversation between him and the marshal St. Andre upon this question. It 
is very interesting (K. 1,497, ^^- -4-)- 

3 K. 1,497, No. ss. 

4 See Vargas to Philip II, from Rome, September 30, 1561, in Papiers d'etat 
du cardhial de Granvelle, VI, 357, where he tells the king of one of Antoine's speeches. 
One of the minor duties of Don Juan de Manrique's mission to France in January, 
1561, had been to give Antoine hope in that quarter, in which policy Spain's grand 
master of artillery, and the papal nuncio worked together. The nuncio was 
Hippolyte d'Este, the cardinal of Ferrara. His correspondence is published in 
Negociaiions ou lettres d'affaires ecclesiastiqiies et politiques escrites aii Pape 
Pie IV et au Cardinal Borromee, par Hippolyte d'Est, cardinal de F err are, legal 
en France au commencement des guerres civiles, Paris, 1658. 

5 K. 1,497, No. 28. 

6"Sa principal esperance de ce coste-la [Sardinia], se fonde sur les bons et 
vigoureux offices qu'il se proniet de nostre Saint-Pere." — Letter II, from St. Ger- 
main, January 10, 1561. Negociations . ... die cardinal de Ferrare, Lettre 
XXXIV, June 26, 1562. 

Don Juan de Manrique suggested to Antoine — " Que s'il vouloit repudir 
la reine sa femme, comme heretique qu'elle estoit, les Seigneurs de Guise luy 
feroient espouser leur Niece, veuve de Francis II." 



I02 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Antoine was willing to leave all the fortresses of the island in Spain's 
possession; and to put his children in Philip's hands as hostages,^ 
This digression has somewhat anticipated the progress of events. 
Charles IX had been crowned at Rheims on May 15 (Ascension 
Day).^ The declared majority and the coronation of her son 
seems to have given Catherine new courage, for in spite of the 
menace implied in the formation of the Triumvirate, she still 
labored in the interest of the Huguenot cause. On June 13, as 
we have seen, the definite exoneration of the prince of Conde was 
pronounced by the Parlement of Paris,^ and in the following 

1 Apparently the Sardinians were prepared to say something for themselves 
in the matter. For St. Sulpice, the French ambassador n Spain, who succeeded 
L'Aubespine, on October 8, 1562, writes to Antoine to this effect: "On lui a 
rapporte 'comme les galeres d'Espagne, venant d'ltalie a Barcelone, et passant 
pres de la Saidaigne, les habitans du pays, s'etaient mis en armes avec contenance 
de vouloir defendre I'abordee de leurs portes ausd. galeres, de quoi s'etant depuis 
venus justifier par deja; ils avaient remontre qu'ils avaient entendu que ce roi les 
voulait bailler a un autre prince et qu'ils craignaient que lesd. galeres y vinssent 
pour les contraindrc de la recevoir a sgr., ce qu'ils ne voulaient permettre, le sup- 
pleant de ne les aliener de sa courrone,'" etc. — U Amhassade de St. Sulpice, 83. 
His correspondence abounds with allusions to Sardinia, e. g., 17, 25, 35, 37, 79, 
S^, 84, 90, etc. 

2 In the presence of the king of Navarre, the constable, the dukes of Guise, 
Nevers, Montpensier, and Aumale, and of spiritual lords, the cardinal of Lorraine, 
who was archbishop of Rheims, and the bishops of Laon, Langres, Chalons, 
Noyon, and Beauvais, the last being the cardinal Chatillon, the only prominent 
Huguenot, who attended the coronation. The prince of Conde, the admiral, the 
duke de Longueville, the marshal Montmorency, and his brother Damville, were 
not present, because they would not assist at mass ("M. Damville is the con- 
stable's best-beloved son, a Knight of the Order, one of the paragons of the court 
and a favourer of the reformed faith." — C. S. P. For., No. 395, §3, August 11, 1561). 
For a detailed account of the particulars and party issues manifested at the cere- 
mony see De Crue, 309, 310. Catherine de Medici apparently took her time to 
advise Philip II of the coronation, for her letter (without date) was not received 
by the King until June 17, K. 1,494, No. 44. 

3 This mightily offended the Triumvirate, and the duke of Guise, the con- 
stable, and the marshal St. Andre forthwith left the court in high dudgeon. 

Rochambeau, Lettres d' Antoine de Bourbon et de Jeanne d'Albret, Inventaire 
Sommaire, No. CXLIII, 27 juin 1561 — 'Attestation de Catherine de Medicis et 
Antoine de Bourbon, pour affirmer que la retraite du due du Guyse, de cone- 
stable de Montmorency, et du mareschal de St. Andre n'est due qu'au seul respect 
et affection qu'ils portent au service du roi et au repos de ses sujets." — Bib. Nat., 
F. Fr., 3,194, fol. 5. 



FORMATION OF THE TRIUMVIRATE 103 

August an outward reconciliation, at least, was effected between 
the prince and the duke of Guise. ^ 

Encouraged by the positive attitude of the queen mother and 
the vacillation of the king of Navarre, the Huguenots urged the 
cause of toleration and presented a request to the King on June 
•^i, 1 56 1, through the deputies of the churches dispersed through- 
out the realm of France.^ They declared that the reports of their 
refusing to pay the taxes and being seditious were false and ca- 
lumnious; they begged the King to cause all persecutions against 
them to cease; that he would liberate those of them who were in 
prison, and that he would permit them to build churches as their 
numbers were so great that private houses would no longer suffice ; 
finally offering to give pledges that there would be no sedition in 
their assemblies, and promising all lawful obedience. 

The queen mother referred this petition to the Privy Council, 
but as it involved so important a matter the council was of opinion 
that it ought to be laid before the Parlement as well as to be con- 
sidered by the princes of the blood and all the peers and councilors 
of the Court of Parlement. ^ The Catholic party was quite willing 
to have this course followed, feeling confident that the Parlement 
in its official capacity would refuse to register an edict for such 
purpose. But L'Hopital'^ and Coligny had hopes that the interest 
and authority of the princes of the blood and other persons of 
influence might carry it through the Parlement after all J How- 
ever, in the end nothing positive was concluded, final resolution 
being deferred until a colloquy of the bishops and other clergy, 
who were convoked at Poissy, near St. Germain, for the end 

^ " Proces-verbal de la reconcilation entre le prince de Conde et le due de 
Guise en presence du roi Charles IX," in K. 1,494, No. 92; Neg. Tosc, III, 460; 
C. S. P. For., Nos. 449, August 24, 1561, 461, August 30, 1561; La Place, 139, 140. 

- "Requeste presente au roi par les Deputez des Eglises esparses parmi le 
royaume de France." A printed copy is to be found in K. 1,495, ^o- 42- It is 
a really eloquent petition. 

3 Castelnau, Book III, chap, iii; C. S. P. For., No. 304, §3, July 13, 1561. 

4 Suriano definitely says the edict of July was the work of the chancellor. He 
gives a summary of the edict in a despatch of July 27, 1561 (Huguenot Society). 

s Cf. C. S. P. For., 1561, No. 237; Despatches of Suriano (Huguenot Society), 
June 25, 1561. 



I04 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of the month, took place.' Meanwhile a tentative ordinance — 
the Edict of July, similar to the Edict of Romorantin — was to 
obtain. This gave the church, as before, entire cognizance of 
the crime of heresy and deprived the Parlement, the bailiffs, sene- 
schals, and other judges of any jurisdiction. In every case local 
ecclesiastical courts had to act first; banishment was to be the 
severest punishment for heresy; false accusers were to be punished 
in the same way that the accused would have been if really guilty ; 
amnesty was granted for past offenses ; and firearms were forbidden 
to be carried in towns or elsewhere, with certain exceptions, under 
a penalty of 50 gold crowns.^ Within a short time, accordingly, 
the Protestant assemblies appeared as frequently as before, 
although the Calvinist clergy seemed to have become more discreet 
in their utterances.^ 

This cleverly designed edict, while seeming to pronounce judg- 
ment, really avoided the question at issue. There was sufficient 
leeway still for the holding of Protestant assemblies, and moreover, 
even though ecclesiastical affairs were to be referred to the spiritual 
courts, the Huguenots were protected by a saving clause (except 
for offenses cognizable by the secular power). ^ Such qualified 

1 Chantonnay to Philip II, July 24, 1561, K. 1,495, -l^^o- S^! C. S. P. For., 
No. 321, §2, Paris, July 16, 1561. 

2 Isambert, Anc. lois frang., XIV, 109 (Edit sur la religion, sur le moyen de 
tenir le peuple en paix, et sur la repression des seditieux). 

3 Suriano, August 25; Neg. Tosc, III, 453-38; Castelnau, Book III; C. S. P. 
For., No. 357; Beza, Hist, eccles., I, 294 (ed. 1841); I.a Place, 130; D'Aubigne, I, 309. 

4 Castelnau, Book III, chap, iii; he admirably depicts the divided state of mind 
of the Parlement which resulted in the edict taking this neutral form. Suriano 
pithily observes: "Con questi dispareri le cose del Regno patiscono assai, et 
non si puo far niuna deliberatione d'importanza che sia ferma et rissoluta, et di 
qua hanno havuto origine tanti editti nel fatto di ReUgione che sono stati pubHcati 
li mesi passati, li quali non solamente sono ambigui, ma diversi I'uno dall' altro, 
et spesse volte contrarii, donde li heretici hanno preso tanto fomento che sono fatti 
piu indurati et piu ostinati che mai" (June 26, 1561). 

Charles IX sent the Sieur d'Ozances to Spain to soften Philip's anger as much 
as possible. In a letter of July 18, from St. Germain to his ambassador in Spain, 
after stating the motives which have led him to dispatch D'Ozances, he adds: 
"Au demeurant, je ne doubte point qu'on seme de beaulx bruictz par dela, tou- 
chant le faict de la Religion, et qu'on ne nous face beaucoup plus malades que nous 
ne sommes; et, pour ceste occasion il m'a semble qu'il serait fort a propos que le 



FORMATION OF THE TRIUMVIRATE 105 

toleration, so guardedly given, was probably all that might with 
safety have been granted to the Huguenots at this early date. But 
they were far from seeing things in this light. The hotheads 
among them, in their meetings and in public places, used the most 
violent language in detraction of the Catholic church and its sacra- 
ments.' In some places popular feeling against priests was so 
strong that they were compelled, for the safety of their lives, to 
disguise their costumes and not to wear the clerical habit abroad, 
nor long hair, nor have the beard shaved, nor exhibit any other 
mark which would indicate that they were priests or monks. ^ 

Sr. d'Auzances feist entendre au Roy, mon bon frere, les termes en quoy nous en 
sommes." Then follow details upon the edict of pacification. This letter was 
sold at auction in 1877. It is catalogued in the Inventaire des autographes et des 
documents hlstoriques composant la collection de M. Benjamin Fillon, Paris, 
Charavay, 1877 (Series I, 34, No. 132 — "Lettre de Charles IX contre-sig. 
Robertet, a I'eveque de hmoges, ambassadeur en espagne; St. Germain, 18 iuillet, 
1561"). 

1 Claude Haton, I, 122. 

2 Ihid., I, 129. In consequence of this state of things we find numerous 
ordinances passed in the summer of 1561 in restraint of violence; cf. "Edit sur la 
religion, sur le moyen de tenir le peuple en paix et sur la repression des seditieux, 
July 1561," Isambert, XIV, 109; "Edit pour remedier aux troubles, et sur la re- 
pression des seditieux," October 20, 1561, ibid., XIV, 122; "Edit sur le port 
d'armes a feu, la vente de ces armes et les formalites a suivre par les fabricants," 
October 21, 1561, ibid., XIV, 123. 



CHAPTER V 

THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY. THE ESTATES OF PONTOISE. 
THE EDICT OF JANUARY, 1562 

In the summer of 1561, France saw two separate assemblies 
convene: the adjourned session of the States- General at Pontoise 
and the conference of the leaders of the two rehgions at Poissy. In 
a sense the cause of the political Huguenots was represented in the 
former, that of the religious Huguenots in the latter, although the 
deliberations of the two assemblies were finally combined in an 
instrument known as the Act of Poissy. The elections in the prov- 
inces, each of which sent up two^ representatives from each baili- 
wick of the kingdom, had enabled the opposition to go on record,^ 
so that the crown had early intimation of the sort of legislation 
that was likely to be demanded. The business of the estates was 

^ C. S. P. Ven., No. 237, February 17, 1561, says: "one representative with 
absolute authority to treat and conclude what might be approved by the majority 
of votes." But I^a Place, III, 121, says tv/o representatives were chosen from each 
bailiwick. Cf. De Crue, Anne de Montmorency, 300. 

2 The estates of the Ile-de-France demanded that the council and government 
of the King should be formed according to the ancient constitution of the realm; 
that the accounts of the previous administration should be examined; that the queen 
mother should be removed from the government and be content with being guardian 
of the King's person; that no stranger be admitted to be of the council; that no 
cardinal, bishop, or other ecclesiastical person having made suit to the Pope, should 
have any place in the Privy Council, not even the cardinal Bourbon, though he was 
a prince of the blood, unless he resigned his hat; that the king of Navarre be regent 
of the realm with the title of lieutenant-general, and that with him be joined a 
council of the princes of the blood and others; that the admiral and M. de Roche- 
foucault should have charge of the education of the King. On these conditions 
the Estates offered to discharge the King's debts in six years; but in the event of 
refusal, they declared that the King must live upon the incomes of the royal domain, 
much of which was mortgaged (C. S. P. For., No. 77, sec. 3, March 31). Cf. 
Despatches of Michele Suriano (Huguenot Society), June 10, 1561; De Crue, Anne 
de Montmorency, 300, 301; letter of Hotman to Bullinger, April 2, 1561 in Mem. 
de I'Acad. des sc. moral, et polit., CIV (1877), 656; Neg. Tosc, III, 455-58. 
For other information, see "Remonstrances du tiers-etat du baillage de Provins," 
in Claude Haton, II, 1137; "Remonstrance .... des villes . . . . de Cham- 
pagne," ihid.. Ill, 1 140, which shows the economic distress. 

106 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY 107 

to find a way out of the financial difiiculties which overwhelmed 
the King.^ 

The spokesman of the third estate, one Jean Bretaigne, mayor 
of Autun, after a tedious prologue copiously laden with biblical 
and classic lore, at last came to the pith of things : he summed up 
in a paragraph of portentous dimensions the burden imposed upon 
the people by war and the extravagance of the court during the 
past twenty years, declaring that the people were so penniless that 
they had nothing to give the King, " save a good and loyal will." 
Things had come to such a pass that mere economy and retrench- 
ment, nor even an honest and effective administration, although 
that was demanded and was promised by the King, could tave 
the future.^ The immense resources of the clergy must be made 
to restore the dilapidated finances of the monarchy; the church 
must come to the material rescue of the state, as in the days of 
Charles Martel. The entire revenue he argued, must be taken 
of all offices, benefices, and ecclesiastical dignities not actually 
officiated either in person or in a titular capacity, the Knights of 
Rhodes and the Hospitalers of St, James included; all the fruits, 
also, of benefices in litigation which the collators were accustomed 
to take during the time of litigation should be appropriated by 
the state, as well as the moneys of deceased bishops and monks. 
Moreover, one-quarter of the income should be taken of all bene- 
ficiaries actually resident in their benefices, in cases where the 
revenue was from 500 to 1,000 livres; of those having a revenue 
of 1,000 to 3,000 livres, one-third; of those with incomes running 
from 3,000 to 6,000 livres, one-half; of those ranging from 6,000 
to 12,000 livres, two-thirds. Those of the clergy whose incomes 
exceeded 12,000 livres and above were to be permitted to retain 
4,000 livres, the surplus being applied to liquidate the King's debts, 

^ La Place, 158 ff.; La Popeliniere, I, 271 ff.; D'Aubigne, Book II, chap, xvi; 
Beza, Hist, eccles., ed. 1840, I, 320 ff.; L'Hopital, (Euvres completes, I, 485 flF. 
De Thou, Book XXVIII, 74-77; Claude Haton, I, 155. A test vote, however, 
on rehgion was taken, resuUing in 62 votes for liberty of worship in the case of the 
Huguenots, and 80 against it (letter of Hotman in Rev. hist., XCVII, March- 
April, 1908, 300. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 396, August 11, 1561; La Place, 146, 147, 150. 



io8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

save in cases where the beneficiaries were bishops, archbishops, 
primates, and cardinals, to whom 6,000 Hvres revenue was to be 
allowed. As to the monastic orders, their whole treasury and 
revenues were to be appropriated, save enough for their support, 
for the maintenance of their buildings, and for charity. And this 
was not all: all houses, gardens, and real property within either 
cities or faubourgs not actually employed for ecclesiastical uses, 
were to be confiscated by the government; the clergy were to be 
made to pay taxes upon the rich furniture and works of art or 
adornment given them to enjoy either for a length of years or in 
perpetuity. Finally, all lands providing revenues, either in money 
or in kind, as oil, wine, and grain, in case of being let to contract 
or change of control, were to be declared redeemable. If these 
measures should prove insufficient, then recourse must be had to 
more drastic means, namely the direct sale of the property of the 
church. Twenty-six million livres' worth of this could be readily 
sold, the speaker argued, which would be no more than one-third 
of the church's possession; the remainder should be administered 
by a trustworthy commission, which, after paying the stipends 
of the clergy in the amounts above indicated, should devote the 
balance to the payment of the debts of the crown. ^ 

This formidable programme, which suggests the policy actually 
followed by France in 1789, in spite of the hot declaration of the 
constable that the speaker presenting it ought to be hanged,^ 
proved so reasonable that the government, without going to the 
extreme proposed, saw that the moment was a favorable one to 
secure important aid from the clergy. The clergy, on the other 
hand, were sharp enough to see that in order to save their property, 
they would have to make sacrifice of a portion of it. At first they 
offered the crown a bonus of ten million livres, which it refused 
as being too small a sum, and demanded a greater subsidy.^ A 
temporary settlement at last was made on the basis of 1,600,000 

1 I.a Place, 150-52; De Thou, IV, 74, 75. The full text, unpublished, of this 
discourse is in F. Fr., 3970, a volume which contains much unused material for 
the history of the estates of Pontoise. L'Hopital's address iS one of the documents. 

2 Despatches oj Suriano (Huguenot Society), August 24, 1561. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 538, §5, September 26, 1561. 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY 109 

livres annual revenue to be levied upon the vineyards of the clergy, 
in order to relieve the King's present needs.' But something 
more fundamental than this had to be done, for these measures 
only supplied the King with funds for current expenses, and did 
not admit of redemption of the debt or resumption of the crown 
lands, which had been mortgaged for about thirty millions of 
francs. This matter was the subject of investigation and debate 
through the ensuing November and December. Finally, a scheme 
was worked out whereby the royal domain was all to be redeemed 
by the clergy within six years, and the remainder of the debt to 
be discharged within another six.^ 

The contract of Poissy-Pontoise presents two important stipu- 
lations: one, a gift of money to the King; second, the repurchase 
by the clergy of the domains of the crown and the redemption of 
the debt. If this contract had been observed, it would have rend- 
ered the other assemblies of the clergy useless, but the failure to 
execute it made necessary the subsequent assemblies of 1563 and 
1567, which established a rule of periodicity, as it were, and fixed 
the next session at 1573. By 1567, the clergy had fulfilled its 
first obligation and declared itself ready to resume the second by 
giving to the provost of the merchants and to the echevins of Paris 
the guarantees desired for the redemption of the rentes. But the 
King at the same time insisted upon the continuation of the sub- 
sidy of 1,600,000 livres. The clergy protested, demanding his 
adherence to the contract of Poissy. The crown enforced continu- 
ation, but as "an easement" waived claim to the "secular tithe" 
heretofore exacted, and granted to the clergy, for the first time, the 
right to collect taxes by its own agents, and the right to judge in a 
sovereign capacity all cases which might arise from these financial 
matters. The government observed this convention no better 

1 De Crue, 312, 313; De Thou, IV, 74; Neg. Tosc, III, 461; Ruble, Antoine 
ie Bourbon et Jeanne d'Alhret, III, 160; Rel. ven., II, 21; K. 1,494, fol. 94. Not- 
withstanding this relief, the King demanded a further subsidy amounting to three 
million gold crowns from the local Estates to be paid in the following January 
(C. S. P. For., No. 682, §10, November 26, 1561). 

2 Ibid.; cf. No. 750, §7, December 28, 1561. Most of this debt was held by 
Paris. It amounted to 7,560,056 livres. 



no THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

than the first, and in addition to extraordinary subventions — two 
milhon livres in 1572, nearly half of which was squandered by the 
duke of Anjou in Poland — resorted to compulsory alienations of 
church property, as in 1563, 1568, 1574, which were made upon 
order of the King, without recourse to papal affirmation. Pur- 
chasers were not wanting for the new credit. The rate of interest 
fell to 5 per cent, in the autumn of 156 1 as a result of these expedi- 
ents, and, provided civil war could be averted, it seemed probable 
that the dilapidated finances might be rehabilitated.' 

Simultaneous with the sitting of the estates at Pontoise to settle 
the financial issue, the religious issue was being debated by the 
doctrinal leaders of Catholicism and Calvinism, at Poissy.^ This 
solemn assembly had been summoned in June to meet on the 
second of the following mxonth,^ in spite of the opposition of the 
clergy and Spain, who warned Catherine that such u concession 
would lead to disaster.-* But delay ensued, and the assembly 
did not actually convene until September, for the members were 
slow in coming. 5 The conditions governing the meeting at Poissy 
were published in council on August 8, namely, that the clergy 
should not be umpires; that the princes of the blood should pre- 
side at the disputation, and that the different proceedings should 
be faithfully recorded by trustworthy persons.^ With respect to 
the other matters the Calvinists were required to make some con- 

^ Rel. ven., I, 409-11. Upon the whole question, see De Crue, Anne 
de Montmorency, chap, xiv; Esmein, Histoire du droit frangais, 632-33. 

2 De Ruble, Le colloque de Poissy (1889); Klipfel, Le colloque de Poissy (1867). 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 265, §9, June 23, 1561; La Place, 131. 

4 Paris, Negociations relatives au regne de Frangois II, 550, 615-22; Papiers 
d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VI, 137; Klipfel, Quis fuerit in Gallia factionum 
stattis, Paris 1863, 23. 

5 Theodore Beza, "the Huguenot pope," did not reach the court until August 
23, where he was cordially received by the prince of Conde, before whom he preached 
"in open audience, whereat was a great press" (C S. P. For., No. 461, August 30, 
1561). For the active agency of Beza at court before the assembly at Poissy met, 
see La Place, 155-57. 

6 The Sorbonne protested against the whole proceeding, but its request was 
not granted (La Place, 154; cf . C. 5. P. For., No. 458, August 28, 1561, No. 485, 
September 8, 1561). 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY iii 

cessions in order to avoid the reproach of seeming to evade the 
colloquy. While awaiting the formal opening of the conference 
at Poissy, Beza was invited by the court to speak before the King, 
the queen mother, the king of Navarre, and the Council. He was 
listened to with great attention by all until he began to deny the 
Real Presence, when the Catholic party tried to stop his address, 
exclaiming that it was blasphemy, and Beza and his partisans 
would certainly have been ejected if their opponents had not been 
restrained by the royal authority and compelled to listen to the 
end. At its conclusion the cardinal Tournon exhorted the King 
to continue firm in the faith of his ancestors,^ and not to permit 
France to be reduced to the Swiss cantonal system.^ 

Many of the clergy said that it was not pertinent for the colloquy 
to determine these points, but that it was for the General Council 
to decide; moreover, it was argued that as the delegates of the 
Spanish clergy would shortly be coming through France on their 
way to Trent, why should not they assist as well as the others P^ 
Catherine, it is said, had intended that there should be no dispu- 
tation about dogma. But there is some reason to believe that she 
confounded dogma with the rites and observances of the church,^ 
and it is certain that the Huguenots were determined to push their 
privilege of free speech to the very limit. Indeed, the conditions 
predicated by Beza formed the substance of a petition presented 
by the Reformed leaders to Charles IX. ^ 

When the conference met a great attempt to maintain secrecy 

1 C. 5. p. For., No. 492, September 10, 1561. 

2 "Far diventar questo Regno cantoni di Svizzeri" .... {Despatches 0} Suri- 
ano [Huguenot Society], Aug. 15, 1561; cf. English Hist. Review, VIII, 135). 
Elsewhere the Venetian ambassador says: "E cosi si va alia via di redurre quella 
provincia a stato populare, come Svizzeri; e distruggere la monarchia e il regno." — 
Rel. ven., I, 538. De Thou, Book XXV, observes: "Qui primam, quam Deo 
debebant, fidem irritam fecissent; qua semel violate, iTiinime dubitaverint regem 
ipsum petere quo regnum everterent, et confusis ordinibus, in rei publicae formam, 
Helvetiorum exemplo, redigerent." 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 421, August 19, 1561; ibid., Ven., No. 280, September 8, 
1561. 

4 Despatches 0} Suriano (Huguenot Society), September 18, 1561. 

5 "Demandes des ministres protestantes au roi," K. 1,494, No. 95. 



112 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

was made. No one was permitted to enter except those who had 
been formally appointed;' the duke of Guise carried the keys to 
the conference hall, and careful search was made at the beginning 
of each sitting to find any who might be hid.^ 

The principal points in dispute turned upon the use of images; 
the administration of the sacrament of baptism; the communion; 




I HE COLLOQL\ OI POIbbV 
(Tortorel and Perissin) 

the mass; the laying-on of hands and the vocation of ministers, 
and finally the consideration of a possible accord in doctrine, in 
which points the usages of the primitive church and the reasons 
of separation were involved. ^ 

On the second day of the conference (September i6) the cardinal 
of Lorraine spoke, dwelling upon these principal points: first, 

1 Upon the personnel of the assembly, see the references in D'Aubigne, I, 
3i5> n. 4- 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 516, §7, September 20, 1561. 

3 "Paroles prononcees par Theodore de Beza touchant le sacrement." — K. 
1,495, -^o- 77- I) "Profession de foi . . . . concerte par les prelats de France;" 
2, "Premiere proposition des Catholiques; premiere proposition des heretiques." — 
Latin, K. 1,495, No. 78; cf. Rel. ven., II, 75. 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY 113 

that the King, being a member of the church and not its head, 
could not set himself up as a judge in matters of religion and faith, 
but was subject to the church like every other Christian; second, 
the definition of the authority of the church was extended even over 
princes.^ 

Before long, however, it became evident, both that the attempt 
to reconcile the Catholic and the Calvinist parties was an impossi- 
bility, and that the government's policy of accommodation was 
exciting discontent.^ The demands of the Huguenots, based on 
Beza's arguments, were as follows: 

1. That bishops, abbots, and other ecclesiastics should not be 
constituted in any way judges of the Huguenots, in view of the 
fact that they were their opponents. 

2. That all points of difference be judged and decided accord- 
ing to the simple word of God, as contained in the New and Old 
Testaments, since the Reformed faith was founded on this alone, 
and that where any difficulties arose concerning the interpretation 
of words, reference should be made to the original Hebrew and 
Greek text.^ 

This second article was a rock of contention from the very 
beginning. The whole Catholic doctrine of tradition having equal 
weight with Scripture was denied in this article. It was manifest, 
indeed, from the first that three things would not be suffered to 
be considered: (i) a change of rehgion; (2) the authority of the 
Pope; (3) the possible alienation of church property.^ This state 

1 The cardinal's definition of the church was, "the company of Christians 
in which is comprised both reprobates and heretics, and which has been recognized 
always, everywhere, and by all, and which alone had the right of interpreting 
Scripture." — C. S. P. For., No. 507, September 17, 1561; cf. Suriano (Huguenot 
Society), September 22. His address is given at length in La Place, 179 ff. It 
was published at the time. Suriano, August 23, 1561, says all the delegates 
"made very long speeches." Upon the doctrinal tactics of the cardinal of 
Lorraine at the colloquy of Poissy, see the letters of Languet, Epist. seer., II, 139, 
September 20, 1561; 159, November 26, 1561. 

2 The first president of the Parlement of Paris was committed to keeping his 
house because of offensive agitation (C. S. P. For., No. 461, August 30, 1561). 

3 Proposition de Theodore de Beze, K. 1,494, No. 96. 
4C. 5. P. Ven., No. 280, September 8, 1561. 



114 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of things, together with the fact that the prolongation of the session 
entailed great expense,' brought about a change of plan. Five per- 
sons, the bishop of Valence, the archbishop of Sens, and MM. 
Salignac, d'Espence, and BouteUier, were appointed by the queen 
and agreed to by the clergy, to confer with five representatives of the 
Calvinists, viz., Peter Martyr, ^ Beza, De Gallars, Marborat, and 
D'Espine.3 Within ten days more the prelates and ministers had 
ceased to confer and were taking their departure. ^ The assembly 
of Poissy dissolved of itself on October i8, having accompHshed 
nothing, 5 except doctrinally still further to disunite the Protestant 
world, which otherwise might possibly have had a council of its own, 
composed of French, Scotch, Enghsh, Germans, Danes, Swiss and 
Swedes, to face the Council of Trent. ^ 

Two days later the cardinal and the duke of Guise departed 
from the court, in spite of the urgency of the queen mother to have 
them remain, accompanied by the dukes of Nemours and Longue- 
ville and other great personages and mustering six or seven hun- 
dred horse. Outwardly there was no sign of disaffection. Im- 
mediately afterward the constable also left, expressing dissatis- 
faction with the tolerant policy of the government. It was plain 

^ C. S. p. For., No. 511, September 19, 1561. 

2 Not being a Frenchman, but an Italian — his name was Pietro Martire Ver- 
migli — he received a separate safe-conduct (Suriano [Huguenot Society], August 
23; Rev. hist., XCVIT, March- April, 1908, p. 302). 

3 La Place, 199. 

4 C. S. P. For., No. 602, October 1,2 1561. For a description of the last days 
of the Colloquy, see Despatches of Suriano (Huguenot Society), October 16, 1561. 

5 C. S. P. For., No. 624, October 18, 1561. In K. 1,495, No. 66, is a resume 
by the Spanish chancellery of Chantonnay's dispatches dealing with the colloquy. 

^C. S. P. For., No. 753, from Strasburg, December 30, 1561. Writing just 
a week earlier, on December 23, to his sovereign, Chantonnay strongly condemned 
the course of Catherine at Poissy because it had militated against the authority of 
Trent, and had given courage to the heretics to continue their synods. — K. 1,494, 
No. 104. Other references to the Colloquy of Poissy are De Thou, IV, 84 ff.; 
De Ruble, Antoine de Bourbon et Jeanne d'Albret, 76 ff.; Corresp. de Catherine de 
Medicis, I, Introd., ci, 239. Chantonnay's correspondence, covering both the 
colloquy and the meeting of the estates at Pontoise, is in K. 1,494, No. 89, August 
5; No. 90, August 20; No. loi, September 12 (especially valuable for the financial 
settlement); No. 102, September 15. 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY 115 

throughout the proceedings at Pontoise (and at Poissy) that the 
chancellor of France, L'Hopital, and the admiral, had the chief 
direction of affairs in their hands, although the queen mother and 
the king of Navarre had the greater show of authority.' 

The Vatican had been an anxious observer of affairs in France, 
and early in June, 1561, the Pope had resolved to send the cardinal 
of Ferrara, Hippolyte d'Este, to France as legate.^ The principal 
points of his mission to the French court, where he arrived on 
September 14, were to entreat the French crown that the annates 
might still remain as the Pope's revenue; that there might be no 
change of religion and observance in the church; to solicit the 
King to recognize the Council of Trent and to break off the colloquy 
at Poissy. 3 But when the legate presented his credentials, at the 
instance of the chancellor, who impugned his powers, the estates 
protested against the entry of any of the Pope's bulls or letters 
without the King's consent and seal.^ The Parlement of Paris 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 659, §10, November 14, 1561. Of these the chancellor 
was the more agrressive, opposing the efforts of the clerical party to delay and ob- 
struct action (D'Aubigne, I, 311). 

2 Cotrespondance de Catherine de Medicis, I, 248; C. S. P. For., Nos. 225 and 
245, June 6-13, 1561; No. 273, June 23, 1561. The choice was a tactless one on the 
part of the Pope and one certain to antagonize Catherine de Medici as well as the 
political Huguenots, for the cardinal was a relative of the Guises by marriage. Don 
Luigo d'Este, the duke of Ferrara's brother, was the son of Alphonso d'Este and 
Lucretia Borgia. He resigned his place in the church and married the duchess 
of Estouteville, a marriage indicating the Guise policy of aggrandisement (C. S. P. 
For., No. 904, March 27, 1560). The marriage made bitter feeling between the 
House of Ferrara and the Guises. "There is a breach between the Dukes of 
Ferrara and Guise touching the former's mother, who, being very rich, and lately 
fallen out with her son, had secretly sent to the Duke of Guise, a gentleman with a 
message that she would come to France and end her life there and be as his mother. 
Word was sent her that she would be welcome; and if her son would not permit her 
to come with her substance, he would take into his hands the assignation made by 
the late king upon certain lands for the payment of 100,000 crowns yearly to the 
Duke till such time as 600,000 crowns, borrowed from him at the Duke of Guise's 
last voyage to Rome, were paid off. The Duke keeps his mother with good watch 
for fear of her escaping to France." — C. S. P. For., No. 446, August 22, 1561. 
The cardinal traveled with great pomp, having no less than four hundred horses in 
his train. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 538, §1, September 26, 1561. 

4 D'Aubigne, I, 311; Rel. ven., II, 87; C. S. P. For., No. 602, October 12, 1561. 



Il6 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

went even farther, and refused to confirm the King's letters-patent. 
But the King's council overrode this resolution, and recognized 
the legate's credentials, although L'Hopital steadfastly refused to 
affix the seal of state to the council's action. 

The cardinal began his negotiations by offering on the part of 
the Pope to resign the tenths and subsidies exacted by tlie church, 
and promising all the help His Holiness could give with honor, 
on condition that the resolution of the estates of Orleans, prohibit- 
ing payment of the annates, which the estates of Pontoise had 
reasserted, should not be executed. The nuncio argued that this 
action was a violation of the concordat of 1516, and that the prin- 
ciple in the case had been decided by the council of Basel, and 
accepted by Charles VII in the Pragmatic Sanction. Accordingly, 
the nuncio asked for a revocation of the actions taken touching 
the property of the church, and that things be restored to the state 
in which they originally were.^ But the cardinal's arguments 
were of no effect. The execution of the new law went forward. 
The first province where it was applied was Guyenne — within 
the government of the king of Navarre, then Touraine, and the 
Orleannais.^ 

An even more interested observer, perhaps, of French affairs 
than the Pope, was Philip of Spain. The progress of heresy in 
France, the seizure of the property of the church there, the attitude 
of the French crown toward the Council of Trent, the uncertainty 
of Antoine of Bourbon's conduct — these were all disquieting facts 
to the Spanish ruler. Philip curtly told Catherine and her son 
that her government must abandon its policy of weakness and 
dissimulation, that too many souls were being imperiled by her 
course, and that coercive measures must be used.^ The duke of 

1 Despjtches of Suriano (Huguenot Society), September 23, 1561. 

2 Ihid., October 22, 1561. For further details of the negotiations, see ihid., 
November 3, 1561; C. S. P. For., No. 682, §9, November 26; Baschet, Journal 
du Concile de Trente, 89. 

3 Philip II to Catherine, September 29, 1561; to Charles, ibid., K. 1,495, No. 
72. To Chantonnay he wrote three days later: "Tambien hazed entender a la 
Reyna como por este camino perdera su hijo, esse reyno y la obediencia de sus 
vassalos." — K. 1,495, No. 80. The words were not merely urgent advice — they 
implied a threat. 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY 117 

Alva had the boldness to declare that unless the government of 
France revived the rigorous suppressive measures of Henry II, 
and punished every heretic, His Catholic Majesty was resolved 
to sacrifice the welfare of Spain and even his own life in order to 
stamp out a pest which he regarded as menacing to both France 
and Spain. ^ Singly and together the bishop of the Limoges (who 
was still at the Spanish court) and D'Ozances, while deploring 
the malice of the times and " the disasters of which everyone knew," 
tried to justify their government on the ground that Calvinism had 
become a necessary evil in France and that it was better to give it 
qualified toleration than to plunge the country into fire and war. 
They pointed to the deliberations of the assembly of Fontainebleau, 
to the States- General of Orleans, to the arrets of the Parlement, 
and the findings of Pontoise and Poissy in proof; they asserted 
that the queen mother and the king of Navarre — they were cau- 
tious not to style him thus in Philip's presence, however — were 
"of perfect and sincere intention" not to let heresy increase in 
France; "the scandal and outrage" of heretical preaching never 
would be permitted in Paris or at the court, although it was neces- 
sary to permit the Protestants to have their own worship outside 
of some of the towns ; that the purpose of the crown was fixed never 
to change or alter the true religion; that France was not hostile 
to the Council of Trent, but in her distress was naturally impatient ; 
and finally they importuned the king of Spain not to show his anger, 
but to give "advice and comfort" for the sake of the friendship 
which existed between their country and his, and for the repose of 
Christendom.^ 

1 Weiss, L'Espagne sous Phillippe II, I, 114, 115; cf. Forneron, Histoire 
de Philippe II, I, 253, n. 3. See also the remarkable "Rapport sur une conference 
entre I'ambassadeur de France et le due d'Albe, au sujet des affaires du roi de 
Navarre et des troubles pour cause de la religion (French transcript, apparently 
of a report of the Spanish chancellery), in K. 1,496, No. 136, December 20, 1561. 
The Pope indorsed the proposition of Spanish intervention in France (Vargas to 
Philippe II, November 7, 1561, in Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VI, 
398, 404). 

2 "Aux villes et pays ovi ils sont la declaires leur bailler quelques lieux pro- 
chaine hors des dictes villes" — Resume des points principaux traites par I'ambas- 
sadeur de France aupres du roi Philippe II (Communications du due d'Alba), 



ii8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The appeal fell upon deaf ears. Philip coldly rephed that it 
was useless for France to expect the advice or assistance of Spain 
so long as her government tolerated heresy in any degree whatso- 
ever; that those at the court who were Huguenots, like the admiral 
and the prince of Conde, should be sent away forthwith, and all 
others should be coerced; that from the point of view of religion 
it was blasphemy to permit the Huguenots to have any places of 
worship, and from the pohtical point of view it was suicide to 
tolerate them, for "there could never be new things in rehgion 
without loss of obedience to the temporal power," in proof of which 
the King pointed out that in certain of the provinces of France 
the people were refusing to pay tithes and taxes, at the same time 
triumphantly asserting that he was better informed of things hap- 
pening in France than in Spain ; that as to the Council of Trent, 
the Germans would have nothing to do with it and Spain had no 
need of it, while France was torn by heretical controversy, so that 
it might well be said that the council sat for the benefit of France 
alone. ^ 

One of the points upon which Philip II dwelt with earnestness 

in the interviews he granted the two ambassadors of France was 

the vicious education under which Charles IX's brother Henry, 

November 9, 1561, K. 1,495, No. 58; "Propositions faites par M. d'Ozance et 
I'ambassadeur ordinaire en Espagne, I'eveque de Limoges, dans deux audiences 
a eux donnees par le roi Philippe II" (Resume avec annotations), M'nute, Notes 
de chancellerie, K. 1,495, No. 69, Madrid, September 17, 1561; "Points principaux 
d'une negociation speciale de M. d'Ozance, envoye de Catherine de Medici avec 
reponses notees a la marge, point par point: Communications au due d'Albe apres 
une deliberation du Conseil d'etat, prise lui absent," November 12, 1561, K. 1,495 
No. 89; "Precis des points traites par M. d'Ozance et de I'Aubespine, ambassadeur 
de France," K. 1,495, N^o- 94> I^ecember 10, 1561; "Reponses a faire par ordre de 
Philippe II a M. d'Ozance, sur les nouvelles propositions de cet ambassadeur," 
K. 1,495, No. 98, December 15, 1561; "Memento addresse par I'eveque de Limoges 
au due d'Albe" (Note a communiquer au roi Philippe II), K. 1,495 No. 100, 
December 20, 1561; Philip II to Chantonnay: "Avis de ce qu'on a repondu a 
M. d'Ozance," December 21, 1561, K. 1,495, No. 102; "Rapport sur une con- 
ference entre I'ambassadeur du France et le due d'Albe, au sujet des affaires du roi 
de Navarre et des troubles pour cause de la religion" (copie en Franjais), K. 1,496, 
folio 136, Madrid, December 20, 1561. 

I Summary of Philip II's letter to Chantonnay of January 18, 1562, in K. 
1,496, No. 34. 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY 119 

duke of Orleans, was being brought up. He emphatically con- 
demned the Huguenot environment of the young prince. It did 
not seem a coincidence therefore, when a plot was discovered in 
November to seize the duke of Orleans — afterward Henry III — 
who was to have been made capo di parti by the Catholics. It was 
even said the conspirators aimed also to remove the king and queen 
of Navarre, Conde, and the admiral, by poison. The duke of 
Nemours was charged with being the principal author of it, and 
was to have carried the young duke off to Lorraine or Savoy. ^ 
This supposition was given greater probability when the whole 
company of the Guises suddenly left the court and departed for 
Lorraine. But Catherine was not yet intimidated, though she 
prudently dropped the investigation which she had set on foot 
when she discovered clues that led to the Escurial and the Vatican.^ 
In spite of the omens, she still adhered to a middle course. The 
government resolved to send twenty-five bishops and two arch- 
bishops to Trent, although they went "very unwilhngly."^ At 
the same time permission was granted to the ministers of the Re- 

1 Despatches 0} Suriano (Huguenot Society), November 4, 1561. The Journal 
du Concile de Trente (ed. Baschet), 89, says the intention was to carry him into 
Lorraine, to prevent his becoming tainted with heresy. Lignerolles, an intimate 
of the duke of Nemours, later confessed the latter's complicity in the plot to kidnap 
the young prince and spirit him away to Savoy, but the affair was hushed up and 
Lignerolles was shortly afterward released. The prince de Joinville, Guise's son, 
seems to have been more actively interested than his father. The correspondence 
between Chantonnay and Philip leaves no room for doubt of the fact that Nemours 
was acting as the agent of Spain (K. 1,494, No. 106, October 31, from St. Cloud; 
No. 114, November 28, 1561), although Phihp repudiated compHcity in a letter to 
Catherine (K. 1,495, No. 90, November 27, 1561), and Chantonnay declared the 
whole story was a trick of the Huguenots. 

2 D'Aubigne, 321. Chantonnay seems to have been apprehensive lest the 
circumstances might precipitate the civil war which every one feared (Letter to 
Philip II, November 28, 1561, K. 1,494, No. 114), and seized the opportunity 
afforded by it to read the queen mother a lecture. The ambassador "used great 
threatenings toward the queen mother and the king of Navarre for their proceedings 
in religion." — C. S. P. For., No. 659, §§i, 2. 

Ruble, Antoine de Bourbon et Jeanne d'Albret, III, 245-50; De Crue, Anne 
de Montmorency, 315, 316. The official inquiry entitled, "Enquete sur I'enleve- 
ment du due d'Orleans," is in F. Fr. 6,608. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 715, §1, December 12, 1561. 



I20 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

formed churches to preach in private houses or in gardens environed 
with houses (the erection of churches being prohibited), if it was 
done without tumuk.^ At court the ministers of the Reformed 
churches preached one day, when the queen of Navarre, the prince 
of Conde, and the admiral would be present. The next day either 
some Cordelier, Jesuit, Jacobin, Minim, or other of the cloistered 
sects, preached, on which occasion, the King, the queen mother, 
the king of Navarre, the cardinal of Ferrara, accompanied by 
those who leaned toward the see of Rome, would be present. But 
moderation was exacted of both sects. On one occasion a famous 
preacher of the Minims, who had won some credit with the Catho- 
lics for his railings, was in the night secretly taken from his 
lodgings and carried to the court to answer for his rabid utterances.^ 

But it was increasingly manifest that events, both within and 
without France, were passing beyond the grasp of the government. 
The Huguenots, sometimes from fear no doubt, but not infrequently 
for effrontery, went to their services with pistols and matchlocks, 
in spite of the laws against the bearing of arms; and they even 
were bold enough to march through the streets singing their psalms, 
to the anger and scandal of Catholic Christians. ^ An outbreak 
was imminent at any time. 

In Paris, on October 12, the Protestants assembled together 
to the number of 7,000 or 8,000 to hear one of their ministers preach, 
half a mile from the town. The Catholics thereupon shut the 
gates to prevent their re-entry. Finding the gates closed, the 
Protestants forced them, and many were wounded and some slain 
on both sides."* From the provinces word had come in July that 
the duke of Montpensier, going to his house in Touraine for the 
burial of his mother, and finding numbers in many towns who 
made open profession of Calvinism, by virtue of his governorship, 
of that country, imprisoned about one hundred and forty in Chinon. 

1 Despatches oj Michele Suriano (Huguenot Society), November 3, 1561; 
C. S. P. For., No. 659, §5, November 14, 1561. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 717, §7, December 13, 1561. For some of the famous 
Catholic preachers of Paris in 1561, see Claude Haton, I, 213, 214, and notes. 

3 Claude Haton, I, 177, 178. 

4 C. 5. P. For., No. 617, October 15, 1561. 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY I2I 

Whereupon the people, not forgetting his conduct toward them in 
the previous reign, when he razed the houses of several who were 
reported to him to be Huguenots, assembled in great numbers — ■ 
about 12,000 or 15,000, we are told — surely a great exaggeration, 
and marched so fast upon him that he was besieged in his house 
and forced to release all the prisoners in order to appease the 
multitude.^ 

The organized nature of the Huguenot agitations in various 
localities, especially in southern France, did not escape the keen 
observation of Philip's ambassador.^ At Montpellier in Langue- 
doc the Protestant organizations, by September, had taken the 
form of a definite league, with the sweeping motto: "No mass, 
no more than at Geneva," whose operations were so thorough 
that many Catholics were on the point of emigrating to Catalonia.^ 

Quite as formidable as armed and insurrectionary religion at 
home was the drift of the negotiations of both parties abroad. The 
formation of the Triumvirate had been taken as a sign by both 
parties that the issue between them was, as in Germany before 
the Smalkald war, likely soon to pass from religious difference 
and political rivalry into military combat; and both sides accord^ 
ingly prepared against this fatal day. Naturally, the Protestant 
German princes who had followed the proceedings at Poissy with 
intense interest^ were the ones looked to for assistance by the 

' C. S. P. For., No. 304, §4, July 23, 1561. 

2 K. 1,495, No- 47) June 19, 1561. Cf. Despatches of Suriano (Huguenot 
Society), October i. Upon these insurrections in the south, see D'Aubigne, I, 
322-26; De Thou, II, 235 ff. (ed. 1740); Mem. de Conde, HI, 636; Long, 
La reforme et les guerres de religion en Dauphine; Pierre Gilles, Hist, eccles. des 
eglises reformees vaudoises, chap, xxii; Hist, du Languedoc, V, 211. 

3 "Aulx petites villes, elles se sont raUiez les unes avec les autres en ung faict, 
ung monopole et une ligue ensemble." — Memoires-journaux du due de Guise 
(M. & P., ser. I, VI, 467, col. 2); Letter of Joyeuse to the constable; duplicate 
to the duke of Guise (September 16, 1561). For the work of this league see pp. 
468-71. Guillaume, vicomte de Joyeuse, was lieutenant to the governor of 
Languedoc and later a marshal of France. 

4 These princes were Wolfgang William, duke of Deuxponts; William, land- 
grave of Hesse; Frederick the Pious, count palatine of the Rhine (D'Aubigne, T, 
333, 334; Le Laboureur, I, 673). The leading Protestant princes of Germany 
were Augustus, elector of Saxony; Joachim II, margrave of Brandenburg, John 



122 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Huguenots. In May, 1561, the prince of Conde had sent Hotman 
to the chief German princes, begging them not to desert the cause 
of the true religion in France and saying that Phihp II was endeav- 
oring to terrify the queen from making any concessions to the 
Huguenots.' The fact that some of these, as the count palatine 
of the Rhine, and the landgrave of Thuringia were Calvinists, 
while others were Lutherans, was not an insuperable barrier to 
co-operation, although the Lutherans wished that the confession 
of Augsburg might first be recognized in France. But the pre- 
vaihng opinion was that the adherents of both of the Protestant 
faiths should first unite in endeavoring to secure freedom of wor- 
ship and liberty of conscience in France, and then they might 
proceed to establish uniformity of rehgion, if possible.^ Two 
propositions were made to the German princes. The first was 
that if the Guises, or any of their confederates, tried to enhst soldiers 
in Germany, measures should be taken to stop the effort ; secondly, 
that if the Guises or their accomplices resorted to the use of arms 
against Conde and Coligny and were supported by Spain, then 
assistance should be given them. Some of the German priilces 
agreed at once to this latter proposition, provided the expenses 
of such military support were defrayed by the Huguenots; but 
others thought that the matter could only be settled in a general 
assembly of the princes. The circle of Huguenot negotiations at 
this moment was a wide one and their prospects were bright. For 

Frederick duke of Saxony; Christopher, duke of Wiirttemberg; Wolfgang William, 
duke of Deuxponts (Zweibriicken) ; John Albert, duke of Mecklenberg; John the 
Elder, duke of Holstein; Joachim Ernest, prince of Anhalt, and Charles, margrave 
of Baden. These are enumerated in a letter of Hotman, December 31, 1560. See 
Mem. de I'Acad. des sc. moral, et polit., CIV, 653, and Bulletin de la soc. prot. jrang., 
i860. 

1 Mem. de I'Acad. des sc. moral, et polit., CIV (1877), 66; C. S. P. For., No. 
399, August 12, 1561. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 319, July 15, 1561, from Strasburg. Hotman visited the 
elector palatine at Germersheim; the landgrave of Hesse at Cassel; the elector 
of Saxony at Leipsic, whence he went to Stuttgart. He did not see the duke of 
Wiirttemberg in person, and was compelled to write to him instead. (See his 
letter, September 27, 1561, in Mem. de I'Acad des sc. moral, et polit., CIV, 660.) 
Thence he went to Heidelberg, from which point he wrote a second letter to the 
duke of Wiirttemberg, and one to the duke of Deuxponts. 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY 123 

at this time Denmark, too, was suing for French favor. Among 
the ambassadors who came to offer the condolences of their sov- 
ereigns for the death of Francis II and to congratulate young 
Charles, had come an envoy of the Danish king proposing the niar- 
riage of his sister to a French prince and himself to marry Mary 
Stuart. This proposed Franco- Danish alliance could have pro- 
duced no other effect than to facilitate the Protestant cause in 
France.^ On the other hand, the prospect of Swiss support of 
the Catholic cause in France was not good. Aside from the great 
expense this alliance had always entailed, the number of the Catholic 
cantons had been diminished by the secession of Claris, which had 
lately gone over to Protestantism, in consequence of which the 
rest, seeing themselves weakened, had asked aid from the duke 
of Savoy and the Pope.^ 

The Catholics adroitly emphasized the difference between the 
two Protestant faiths, with the hope not only of preventing Lutheran 
support of the Huguenots, but even of securing their aid against 
the French Calvinists. The duke of Guise went in person to con- 
fer with the duke of Wiirttemberg at Saverne (February 15, 1562) ,3 
while Philip II redoubled his efforts to alienate the king of Na- 
varre."* The support of the Spanish monarch was the vital factor 
in French politics. The French Calvinists had no single most 
powerful ally to support them, such as the Catholic party enjoyed 
in the assistance of Spain. England was the only Protestant 
power capable of being a rival to Spain, and England was too 
cautious or too much occupied with home politics to risk embroil- 
ment abroad. 

Both Rome and Spain at this moment took a resolute attitude. 
Shortly after the conference of Poissy came to an end, a consistory 

1 La Place, 121, 122; C. S. P. Ven., No. 249; Arch, nat., K. 1,495, folio 47, 
Chantonnay to Philip II, June 19, 1561. 

2 C. 5 .P. For., No.. 736, November 26, 1561. 

3 Chantonnay's correspondence shows that agents of the duke of Guise were 
busy in Germany as early as October, 1561, K. 1,494, No. 105, October 28, 1561. 
Cf. Hubert Languet, Epist. seer., II, 142, 159, 202; Archives de la maison d'Orange- 
Nassau, I, 216-18, 226-52; Bulletin de la soc. de I'histoire du prof, frangais, XXIV. 

4C. S. P. For., No. 724, §2, December 14, 1561. 



124 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of the curia, on October lo, 1561, had resolved to resist the Prot- 
estants in France.^ The counter- reformation programme dehb- 
erated at Trent recognized Phihp II as the secular head of the 
movement ("a ceste fin d'un commun consentement le tout chef 
et conducteur de toute I'enterprise ") who was to wheedle or com- 
pel the king of Navarre to commit himself in favor of the Catholic 
cause in France, of which the duke of Guise was to be formally 
recognized as leader. The Spanish monarch was also to bring 
pressure to bear upon the Emperor to compel the Catholic princes 
of Germany to prevent the Lutherans and Rhenish Calvinists 
from supporting the Protestants of France. France must be 
saved from self-ruin for the sake both of religion and the preserva- 
tion of other Catholic nations. Time and circumstances would 
show the hour of such intervention, but everything must be pre- 
pared in advance.^ 

Aside from his inflexible rehgious convictions, in Philip's eyes, 
policy also pointed toward Spanish intervention in France. Spain, 
Spanish Burgundy, and Flanders were, as Montluc of Valence 
declared, "les trois plus belles fleurs de chapeau du roy Philippe;" 
each of them bordered France, and France lay between Spain and 
them, splitting the Spanish empire like a wedge. Under these 
circumstances the prevention of heresy in France was not merely, 
an act of religious duty but an act dictated by political expediency. 
Moreover, Spain might territorially profit by such a policy. The 
son of Charles V dreamed of acquiring ducal Burgundy, which 
his father had failed to secure; the Three Bishoprics might be 
wrested away from Charles TX, either violently or as the price of 
Spanish aid, and joined to Franche Comte they would materially 
strengthen Spain's midcontinental road from Lombardy to the 
mouths of the Rhine. ^ 

I C. S. P. For., No. 602, October ii, 1561, from Rome. 

^ Papier s d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VI, 432-43: "Rapport secret du 
secretaire Courtville," December, 1561. 

3 Cf. Montluc, bishop of Valence, "Discours sur le bruit qui court que nous 
aurons la guerre a cause de la religion," Mem. de Conde, ed. London, III, 73-82. 
A note adds: "Ce discours se trouve aussi au fol. 61 recto du MS R et il est a la 
suite d'une lettre de M. de Chantonnay, du 24 mars 1561. II dit a la fin de cette 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY 125 

Fear of Spain and of the Guises gave Catherine de Medici 
more anxiety than the insurrections of the Huguenots.^ The 
government was justly apprehensive of Phihp II's movements and 
warned Joyeuse to be on his guard against any effort to throw 
Spanish troops across the frontier.^ Reinforcements were sent 
to Calais.3 At the same time more captains and companies were 
sent to Metz, where Vieilleville, the governor, was ordered not 
to admit anyone known to be a Guisard into the city, as the 
Guises were suspected of wishing to hand it over to Phihp.'^ Pre- 
cautionary changes were also made in the military posts, in the 
case of those known to be well-affected to the Guises, the changes 

lettre, que Ton disoit communement que ce Discours etoit de I'eveque de Valence 
(Montluc). Ce Discours a ete copie dans ce MS sur I'edition qui en fut faite dans 
le terns." 

^ On November 23, 1561, Charles IX wrote to the bishop of Limoges in regard 
to Philip II: " Dites-lui que je le prie si Ton luy a donne quelques doubtes et soupgons 
de mes deportements, qu'il vous en dye quelcun et ce qu'il la mys en doubte, affin 
que s'il veult prendre tant de paynes d'envoyer ung homme fidelle ez lieux ou il 
aura oppinion qu'on fera quelques preparatifs, je luy face cognoistre que c'est une 
pure menterie." — Catalogue . . . . de lettres autographes de feu M. de Lajariette, 
Charavay, Paris, i860, No. 667. Five days later, on November 28, 1561, Catherine 
de Medici wrote to the same ambassador: "Je me defie tent de seux qui sont mal 
contens .... car je ne veos ni ne suys conselliee de venir aus armes." — Collection 
de lettres autographes ay ant appartenu a M. Fosse-Darcosse, Paris, Techener, 1861, 
No. 193. 

2 Hist, du Languedoc, V, 211. Philip II was reputed to have spent 350,000 
crowns of his wife's dowry in Germany (C. 5 P. For., No. 659, §18, November 14, 
1561). Catherine sent a special agent, Rambouillet, into Germany to assist Hot- 
man in discovering information about Spain's intrigues there (C. S. P. For., No. 
713, December, 1561; Mem. de VAcad. des sc. moral, et polit., CIV [1877], 661). 
D'Ozances in Spain received special instructions to decipher Philip II's conduct if 
possible. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 265, §11, June 23, 1561. This was in consequence of the 
apprehension aroused early in May by the appearance of a large body of Spanish 
infantry and cavalry to survey Abbeville whence they returned toward Guisnes 
{ibid., No. 248, from Paris, May 18, 1561). 

4 Ibid., No. 712, December 9, 1561, from Strasburg; No. 717, §6, December 
13, 1561, from Paris. There had been some anxiety lest the Emperor might avail 
himself of the distraction in France to seize the Three Bishoprics. But at this 
moment, on account of the activity of both the Turk and the Muscovite, and 
because he was angry with the Pope over the Council of Trent, Ferdinand, was 
frifendly to France and cordially received Marillac, the bishop of Vienne 
(D'Aubigne, I, 332, t,t,7,). 



126 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

all being in favor of the Huguenot party.' De Gourdan was 
removed from Calais and the command given to the sieur de Gram- 
mont, who had married a sister of the vidame de Chartres; the 
prince de la Roche- sur- Yon was made king's lieutenant in Paris; 
the admiral made governor of Normandy in place of the duke of 
Bouillon ; Conde was sent to Picardy, where the marshal Brissac 
had lately resigned on account of illness.^ 

"Here is new fire, new green wood reeking, new smoke and 
much contrary wind blowing," wrote Shakerley to Elizabeth's 
ambassador, Throckmorton, on December 15, 1 561.3 xhe words 
were wisely as well as quaintly used. From the capital to every 
edge of France unrest, suspicion, conspiracy, insurrection pre- 
vailed. The Catholic orders began to fortify the abbeys. Every 
day Catherine's determination to maintain an even balance of the 
two religions was producing greater tension and more heat. Vio- 
lence was ominously on the increase. ^ Robbery was common 

1 "Le conseil du roi, voyant que les mouvements les plus divers agitaient le 
royaume, decide que chaque gouverneur, lieutenant, seneschal et autres ministres, 
se rendissent a leurs gouvernements." — Baschet, Journal du Concile de Trente, 89. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 595, October 9, 1561; No. 602, October 12, 1561; No. 
624, October 18, 1561; No. 659, §20, November 14, 1561. The appointments of 
Coligny and Conde never became operative, owing to the outbreak of civil war early 
in the next year. They are important only as they reflect Catherine's policy of 
caution and craft. 

3 Ibid., No. 729. Thomas Shakerley was an F.nglishman by birth, who had 
once been a page to Edward VI, while the latter was prince. He had left England 
nine years before and had spent most of his time in Rome, where, becoming an 
organist, he "obtained the estimation of a cunning player for the substance and 
solemnity of music." He came to France in the suite of the cardinal of Ferrara. 
The Spanish ambassador approached him with an offer to enter the secret service 
of Spain, which Shakerley patriotically communicated to Throckmorton {ibid., 
No. 730, §5, December 18; No. 750, §ic, December 28, 1561). 

4 On December 27, the Protestants congregated in the Faubourg St. Marceau, 
whereupon the priests and Papists assembled at St. Medard and determined to 
attack them. One of the Protestant soldiers going to remonstrate was run through. 
The Protestants who were appointed to guard the assembly, seeing this, ran to 
his succor, but were driven back by the numbers. Other Protestants coming up 
put their attackers to rout and forced their way into the church, when the prince de 
la Roche-sur-Yon, the King's lieutenant, arrived with a strong force of horse and 
foot and carried off several to the Chatelet {ibid., No. 7S3, January 4, 1561; Mem. 
de Conde, IT, 541 ff.; Claude Haton, 179, and note; Arch, cur., IV, 63 ff.; and 
an article in Mem. de la soc. de I' hist, de Paris, 1886). 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY 127 

under pretense of searching for heretics.' In the hope of bettering 
things, the crown relieved the prince de la Roche-sur-Yon of the 
lieutenancy and committed it to the marshal Montmorency, from 
whose religious moderation and popularity much was expected.^ 
The capital of France at this season presented a strange and ter- 
rible appearance. Armed bands roamed the streets. The city 
more resembled a frontier city in a state of siege than a mercantile 
or university town. The students of the Sorbonne paraded the 
streets and went armed to mass, the authorities being powerless 
to control them.^ 

The condition in the provinces was as bad ; only here the odds 
seem to have been in favor of the Protestants. In Guyenne a 
Huguenot mob sacked a town, committed many outrages, and 
finally besieged the governor, Burie, in his house. "^ A worse 
occurrence was the murder of Fumel, an eminent lavi^er in Lan- 
guedoc, as an "enemy of the religion.''^ There were riots in 
Troyes, Orleans, Auxerre, Rouen, Meaux, Vendome, Bourges, 
Lyons, Tours, Angers,^ Bazas. '^ The Huguenots of Sens erected 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 758, §13, December 31, 1561. 

2 Ibid., No. 789, §2, January 8, 1562. The prince de la Roche-sur-Yon 
passed for a Calvinist, while the marshal Montmorency was a liberal Catholic. 
The queen mother hoped the change would be acceptable to both parties. An- 
other reason for this change was that the constable and the prince de la Roche- 
sur-Yon were the principals in a law-suit involving 10,000 ducats income. It was 
possible for the lieutenant of Paris to use influence with the Parlement of Paris 
before which the case was to be tried, and this more obviously favored the con- 
stable's side of the suit. Cf. details in Chantonnay's letter to Philip II, January 
5, 1562, K. 1,497, B, 15. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 925; cf. Castelnau's description of the bandits in the 
Faubourg St. Marcel, Book III, chap. v. 

4 C. S. P. For., No. 789, §2, January 6, 1562. 

5 Archives de la Gironde, VIII, 207. The King sent a special officer to put the 
offenders to death and destroy the village, but it is significant that this commission 
was not intrusted to Villars, who was subHeutenam in Languedoc and notorious for 
his treatment of the Huguenots (C. 5. P. For., No. 750, §10, December 28, 1561). 

6 Claude Haton, I, 195-98, 236, 237. His spleen is evidenced, though, in 
saying that: "a cause de la grande liberte a mal faire et dire qui leur estoit permise 
sans aiilcune punition de justice .... si le plus grand larron et voleur du pays 
eust este prins prisonnier. il eust eschappe a tout danger voire a la raort, moyennant 
qu'il se feust declare Huguenot et de la nouvelle pretendue religion." — Ihid., I 
124. This is one of the earliest characterizations of the Huguenot faith. It was 
afterward currently referred to as the "R. P. R." 

7 .Archives de la Gironde, XV, 57. 



128 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

a church outside the town. Then finding that they outnumbered 
the CathoHcs they pillaged the treasury of the cathedral and robbed 
the monasteries.^ 

Still the queen mother persevered, taking her counsel from the 
chancellor L'Hopital, the admiral Coligny, the prince of Conde, 
and his brother, D'Andelot, and adhered to her resolution to per- 
mit the Huguenots to enjoy freedom of worship. On January 3, 
1562, the chancellor made an earnest plea for religious toleration 
before the Court of Parlement,^ which was followed by the 
most decisive action the government had yet taken, namely the 
issuance of the famous edict of toleration of January 17, known 
as the Edict of January, which was the first that granted exercise 
of the Reformed religion in public.^ 

^ Claude Haton, I, 194, 195, and note. 

2 Chantonnay to Philip II, January 5, 1562, K. 1,497, E- ^S- The Spanish 
ambassador violently expostulated with Catherine de Medici, Antoine of Bourbon, 
and others after this address was over (K. 1,497, January 11, 1562), for which 
Philip II commended him (K. 1,496, No. 34, 3 verso). 

3 Isambert, XIV, 124-29; Raynaldus, XXXIV, 292, 293. The original docu- 
ment is on exhibition in the Musee des Archives at Paris. It is catalogued 
K. 674, No. 4. Although authorized on January if, the edict was not printed 
until March 13, 1562 (C. 5. P. For., No. 930, §11; 934, §1). The Edict of 
July had been only negative in its character, simply forbidding judges and the 
magistrates from pursuing the Huguenots, but not in any sense recognizing their 
religion. Castelnau, Book I, chap, ii, makes this very clear. The Edict en- 
countered strong opposition in the Parlement, which twice rejected it by a plurality 
vote (C. 5. P. For., No. 849, January 28, 1562; Claude Haton, I, 185, 186). Benoist, 
Histoire de I'Edit de Nantes, I, Appendix, gives the text together with the 
first and second mandamus of the King, February 14 and March 11, 1562, ex- 
pressly enjoining the Parlement "to proceed to the reading, publishing, and regis- 
tering of the said ordinance, laying aside all delays and difficulties." The first 
mandamus, "Declaration et interpretation du roy sur certains mots et articles 
contenus dans I'edict du XVII de Janvier 1561," declared that magistrates were not 
officers within the meaning of the edict (Isambert, XIV, T29, n. 2). Klipfel, 
Le colloque de P cissy, chap, iii, makes the point that the Parlement of Paris was 
criminally wrong in arraigning itself upon the side of violence and encouraging the 
intolerance of the populace. The Parlement of Rouen was more complacent, and 
seems promptly to have registered it (C. 5. P. For., No. 891, §10, February 16, 1562). 

The Edict of January is sometimes wrongly dated January 17, 1^61. The 
error arises from the confusion of the calendar in the sixteenth century. In 1561 
the year in France legally began at Easter, which, of course threw January 17, into 
the year 1561. But in 1564 a royal ordonnance abolished this usage and estab- 



THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY 129 

This edict was expressly declared to be provisional in its nature, 
pending the decisions of the Council of Trent, which, by a coin- 
cidence, was opened on the day following, January 18, 1562, the 
first formal session being set for the second Thursday in Lent.^ 
The preamble recited that the government's action was taken in 
consideration of the state of affairs prevailing in the kingdom; 
that it was not to be construed as approving the new religion; 
and that it was to remain in force no longer than the King should 
order; it deprecated the "disobedience, obstinacy, and evil inten- 
tions of the people" which made even provisional recognition of 
Calvinism necessary. Specifically, the edict provided for the 
restoration by the Huguenots of all property unlawfully possessed 
by them; it forbade them to erect any churches, either within or 
without the cities and towns (Art. i) or to assemble for worship 
within the walls thereof either by day or night, or under arms 
(Arts. 2, 5). Protestant worship was required to be in the day- 
time, outside the town gates, in the open, or, if under cover, in 
buildings occasionally used, and not formally consecrated as 
churches. For this reason the Reformed ministers preached, 
some in the fields, others in gardens, old houses, and barns, accord- 
ing to their particular inclinations or convenience. For they were 
expressly forbidden to build any chapels, or meddle with the 
churches, upon any account. Access to their meetings was always 
to be permitted to the King's officers, i. e., bailiffs, seneschals, 
provosts, or their lieutenants, but not to officers of judicature 
(Arts. 3, 6; and supplementary declaration of interpretation, Feb- 
ruary 14, 1562). Furthermore, the raising of money among the 
Huguenots was to be wholly voluntary and not in the form of 
assessment or imposition. They were to keep the political laws 
of the Roman church, as to holidays and marriage, in order to 

lished January i as the beginning of the year, which brought forward January 17 
into its proper year, 1562. The reform of the calendar by Gregory XIII would 
alter the date of the month also, according to modern reckoning. But it is simpler 
to let established dates stand. Henry III authorized the use of the Gregorian 
calendar in France in 1582. For a lucid account of these changes see Commentaires 
et lettres de Montluc, IV, Introd., x-xi by the baron de Ruble. 
^ Baschet, Journal du Concile de Trente, 71. 



130 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

avoid litigation and confusion of property rights; and to refrain 
from harboring any person who might be accused, prosecuted, 
or condemned by the government, under penalty of a fine of 1,000 
crowns, to be devoted to charity, together with whipping and 
banishment (Arts. 8, 9, 12) . The use of reproachful or vituperative 
language touching the faith or practice of the Catholic church was 
made a misdemeanor (Art. 10). Finally, all Protestant synods 
or consistories were required to be held by permission of or in 
presence of the lieutenant-general of the province concerned, or 
his representative, and the statutes of the churches were to be 
communicated to him (Art. 7, and supplementary declaration and 
interpretation of February 14, 1562). 

In order to prevent seditions, an edict was sent to the judges 
of the towns, in the name of the King, by which the authorities 
were ordered to disarm all Catholics in their towns of every species 
of weapon and to make them deposit their arms in the local city 
hall or other common point, where they were to be kept under the 
guard of the procureur and the echevins^ 

It is a question worthy of consideration, whether the preachings 
of the Reformed might not have been peaceably maintained after 
the Edict of January, the provisional form gradually being modi- 
fied until complete religious toleration would have been secured, 
if Spain had not continued to tamper with French politics, and 
if the persistence of the political Huguenots had not continued 
to push things to such a point that at last the two causes, originally 
separate, became the obverse and reverse sides of the same issue 
and had to stand or fall together. On the other hand, had not 
these concessions of the crown been too long delayed ? Was the 
edict "dead from birth," as Pasquier wrote ?^ 

1 Claude Haton, I, 177, and n. i. For other details see Castelnau, Book III, 
chap, i; Rel. ven., II, 71. 

2 Leitres de Pasquier, II, 96. Mignet characterizes the provisions of the Edict 
of Jauuary as ''genereuses, simples, et sages." Mignet, "Les lettres de Calvin" 
(Joutnal des savants, 1859, p. 762), and Haag, La France protestante, Introd., xix, 
as "le plus liberal edit qui ait ete obtenu par les reformes jusqu'a celui de 
Nantes." 



CHAPTER VI 

THE FIRST CIVIL WAR. THE MASSACRE OF VASSY (MARCH i, 
1562). THE SIEGE OF ROUEN 

The progress of events had developed so rapidly as to bely the 
Edict of January almost as soon as it was passed. The continued 
absence of the Guises from the court made them open to suspicion, 
particularly as messengers were passing frequently between Join- 
ville and St. Germain.^ The nets of conspiracy woven by the 
Triumvirate were daily being drawn tighter around France. 
Directed by Chantonnay and the cardinal of Ferrara (who gen- 
erally spoke in Spanish when together in public, that those near 
by might not understand),^ the plans of the Triumvirate were 
concerted, the Spanish ambassador looking ahead to the day when 
force would supplant diplomacy.^ 

Ever since its formation, as we have seen, the Triumvirate had 
sought to win over the king of Navarre. As he was, therefore, 
sought by both parties, he was much inflated with a sense of his 
own importance. Antoine still lived in hope of compounding 
with Philip for the kingdom of Navarre, and to that end still nego- 
tiated both with the Vatican and with Spain. ^ But he was getting 
very tired of the procrastination of the Spanish king, so that there 
was danger of the thread of his patience being snapped. ^ If war 

' C. S. P. For., No. 789, §1, January 8, 1562, and cf. No. 750, §3, December 
28, 1561. The importation of money from Germany into Lorraine was no secret. 

a Ihid., No. 729, §3, December 16, 1561. Catherine de Medici, however, 
could speak the language {ibid., No. 2,155, December 3, 1571). 

3 Ihid., No. 729, §3, December 16, 1561. Chantonnay was morally the 
leader of the Triumvirate, beyond a doubt, and guided its policy. "The king 
of Navarre, the duke of Guise, the constable, the cardinal of Ferrara, the marshals 
St. Andre, Brissac, and Termes, the cardinal Tournon, have joined together to 
overthrow the Protestant religion and exterminate the favorers Xhextoi— which 
enterprise is pushed forward by the Spanish ambassador here and Spanish threaten- 
ings." — C. S. P. For., No. 934, §1, March 14, 1562. 

* Ibid., No. 758, §12, December i; No. 531, §4, September 23, 1561. 

5 Antoine de Bourbon to Philip II December 7, 1561, K. 1,494, No. 116 
(not in Rochambeau). 

131 



132 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

broke out in France and found him in such a mood, an attempt 
might possibly be made to overrun Navarre.' In consequence, 
it became necessary to make a more tangible proposition to the 
Bourbon prince. It took the form of a demand and a promise. 
The demand was that every Huguenot should be banished from 
court and the Protestant clergy expelled from the country together 
with the prince of Conde, the Chatillon brothers, the chancellor, 
and Montluc, the bishop of Valence. In return Antoine was to 
receive the "kingdom of Tunis" as a reward. This was the new 
prize used by Spain to bait the hook, and gradually Antoine was 
drawn over to the side of Spain and the Triumvirate. The amus- 
ing feature of this proffer was not so manifest to the men of that 
day as to us. Geographical knowledge, even of the Mediterranean 
coast, was hazy. The constable, for example, thought that Tunis 
was an island! But Antoine knew more history and geography 
than Montmorency; he knew that Tunis was a Turkish possession 
which Charles V had vainly tried to seize, and had to be beguiled 
with visions of oriental splendor and large plans for its conquest 
before he became passive. Pending its acquisition, Philip II 
renewed the offer of Sardinia. Meanwhile Antoine received 
instruction in the Catholic faith from a teacher recommended to 
him by the general of the Jesuits,^ and quarreled with Jeanne d'Al- 

1 Despatches of Michele Suriano (Huguenot Society), October i8, 1561. The 
whole letter is exceedingly interesting. 

2 The Jesuits had long tried to get a legal status in France. Henry II, was 
favorable to them, but the Parlement of Paris, the secular clergy, and the Sorbonne 
were bitterly opposed. The Act of Poissy recognized the Jesuits as a college but 
not as a religious order, to the anger of the Sorbonne. See Douarche, L'Universite 
de Paris et les Jesuites, Paris, 1888, chap. iv. At the time of the expulsion of the 
Jesuits from France in 1761, in reply to the question of the crown as to their legal 
status, the cardinal de Choiseul made the following answer: "Lorsqu'ils ont ete 
refus en France I'an 1561, par le concours des deux puissances, ils se sont soumis 
et ont ete astreints par la loi publique de leur etablissement a toute superinten- 
dance, jurisdiction et correction de I'eveque diocesain et a se conformer entierement 
a la disposition du droit commun, avec la renonciation la plus formelle aux pri- 
vileges contraires portes dans les quatre bulles par eux presentees ou autres qu'ils 
pourraient obtenir a I'avenir." .... " Le veritable etat des Jesuites en France 
pardit done eire, suivant les lois canoniques regues dans le royaume, I'etat des 
reguliers soumis a la juridiction des ordinaires conjormement au droit com- 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 133 

bret because she would not let the future Henry IV be taken to 
mass, or permit him to be present at the christening of the infant 
son of the Spanish ambassador.^ By March (1562) it was evident 
that the king of Navarre was "never so earnest on the Protestant 
side as he was now furious on the other. "^ 

But if the Spanish ambassador used smooth words to the king 
of Navarre, his language was quite otherwise toward Catherine 
de Medici. In the name of his sovereign he demanded the banish- 
ment of Jeanne d'Albret from court, the compulsory education 
of Henry of Navarre in the Catholic religion, and so soundly rated 
her for harboring Coligny and D'Andelot at court that the outraged 
queen mother demanded his retirement, ^ ordered the marshal 
St. Andre back to his government, '^ and the constable to retire 
to Chantilly, and contemplated doing the same with the old cardi- 
nal Tournon. This procedure offended Antoine who imputed her 
conduct to Coligny and his brother, and in consequence he inclined 
more than ever toward the Triumvirate. ^ Finally on Palm Sunday 
(March 22) Antoine cast the die and went to mass, coming from the 
service with the emblem of the celebration in his hand.^ 

A superficial aspect of peace still prevailed at court, but in the 
provinces a state of war already prevailed. Sens,' Abbeville,^ 
Tours, Toulouse, Marseilles, Toul in Lorraine, ^ and most of all 

mun." Cf. Eugene Sol, Les rapports de la France avec I'ltalie, d'apres la serie K. 
des Arch. Nat., Paris, 1905, 119,120. The original document is in the Archives 
nationales, K. 1,361, N. i, C. 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 934, §2, March 14, 1562. 

2 Ibid., No. 931, March 9, 1562. 

s Ibid., No. 924, §8, March 6, 1562; cf. ibid.. No. 715, §4, December 12, 
1 561: "The Spanish ambassador was wondrous hot with the queen." 
^ Lettres du cardinal de Ferrare, No. 14, March 3, 1562. 

5 C. S. P. For., No. 891, February 16, 1562. 

6 Corresp. de Chantonnay, K. 1,497, ^o- ^7> March 25, 1562. This circum- 
stance is noticed by almost all the chroniclers: D'Aubigne, Book V, chap, iii, i; 
Mem. de Conde, I, 76, 77; Arch, cur., VI, 59. 

7 Claude Haton, I, 189. 

8 Beza, Histoire eccles., I, 416. 

9 Collection Godefroy (Bibliotheque de I'Institut), Vol. XCVII, folio 19, March 
6, 1562. 



134 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

\ 
Cahors and Agen/ where the terrible Montluc figured, were all 
scenes of riot and bloodshed during the winter months, in which 
the Huguenots were generally worsted.^ In Agen it was so bad 
that the government had to take more than ordinary notice of the 
situation. Charles IX called upon the governor of Guyenne to 
repress "les exces, forces, violences, sacagements d'eglises, sedi- 
tions et escandalles advenus en notre pays d'Agenais," and ordered 
the consuls of the city to send him the names of those who disturbed 
the peace. 

In this condition of things only a spark was needed to throw 
the whole country into flames. Force alone could settle the irre- 
concilable conflict, and it was soon to be invoked. War was 
certainly anticipated by both parties. But contrary to expectation 
it was not precipitated by Spanish intervention, but by outbreak 
within France. It was the massacre of Vassy on March i, 1562, 
that threw the country into civil war. 

The duke of Guise had spent the winter, as we have seen, 
working in the interest of the Triumvirate. On February 15, 1562, 
he had a conference at Saverne with the duke of Wiirttemberg, 
whom he adroitly persuaded into the belief that the Calvinists 
were aiming to involve the German Protestants in their own quar- 
rel, thereby securing his neutrality in event of civil war. Shortly 
after his return to France the duke left Joinville with the inten- 
tion of rejoining the court. As he was passing through Vassy,^ his 
retinue encountered a Huguenot congregation worshiping in a 
barn outside of the town. Though the service was strictly in con- 
formity with the Edict of January, the sight angered the duke, 
whose followers fell upon the company, and the famous massacre 
ensued. It was March i, 1562. How much provocation was 
made by the Protestants for this attack is a matter of dispute. 
The duke himself and Catholic partisans ever since have asserted 

1 Inventaire des archives communales d'Agen, BB., "Inventaire sommaire," 
XXX, 28 (April 17, 1562). 

2 D'Aubigne, II, 7, gives a long list of cities where disturbances occurred. 

3 Vassy was a little town in the diocese of Chalons-sur-Marne. in a dependency 
of Joinville belonging to the Guises. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 



135 



that stones were first thrown at him. Probably the absolute 
truth will never be known. Ranke, perhaps, sums up the verdict 
of history best in the statement that "whether the duke intended 
the massacre or not, it is enough that he did not prevent it."^ 




THE MASSACRE OF VASSY, MARCH i, 1652 
(Bib. Nat., Estampes. Histoire de France, Q. b.) 



Two weeks later, on March i6, the duke of Guise, accompanied 
by the chief members of his house, save the cardinal of Lorraine 
and the duke of Elboeuf, arrived in Paris. The capital, which long 
since had learned the news of Vassy, received him joyfully.^ At 

1 In the Memoires de Conde, III, T24, there is an elaborate Protestant version 
of the massacre, preceded by a letter of the duke of Guise. The Guise account is 
in the Memoires du due de Guise, 471-88. Cf. D'Aubigne, 131; Arch, cur., IV, 103. 
The Spanish ambassador's long letter of March 16 is in K. 1,497, No. 14. The 
quotation from Ranke is in his Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, 211. 

2 Correspondance de Chantonnay, March 20, 1562, K. 1,497, -^o- ^6. Ac- 
counts of this event abound. See La Popeliniere, I, 287; Claude Haton, I, 208; 
D'Aubigne, II, 10; a letter of Santa Croce in Arch, cur., VI, 55; La Noue, Mem. 



136 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the St. Denis gate he was met by the constable and his four stalwart 
sons, the eldest of whom was governor of the city, the four marshals 
of France, and twenty-one knights of the Order. Having arrived 
at his hotel, the provost of the merchants, who was syndic of Paris, 
accompanied by many of the chief merchants, visited him, "testi- 
fying his joyful welcome," which was further attested by the proffer 
of two millions of gold in favor of the Catholic cause. The duke 
made an adroit reply, assuring them that the queen mother and 
the king of Navarre, with the aid and advice of the King's council, 
would pacify the realm; that he, as a faithful and loyal subject, 
must abide where the King commanded, and that he hourly ex- 
pected a summons to court. On the same day the prince of Conde, 
returning from the court to Paris with the intention of going to 
Picardy, finding the duke of Guise in the capital, changed his 
plans and tarried in Paris, though offering to leave the town by 
one gate if the duke, the constable, and the marshal St. Andre 
would leave by the other.' When the Guises perceived that the 
Huguenots were undismayed by the events, they began to increase 
their adherents in the city, so that in a short time, it was thronged 
with nearly ten thousand horsemen. It was impossible, on the 
other hand, for the Huguenots to concert measures of defense in 
Paris, and accordingly the prince of Conde soon quitted the capital 
(March 23) "like another Pompey,"^ going to Meaux, where 
Coligny and D'Andelot soon joined him.^ 

Meanwhile Catherine de Medici, fearful lest the person of the 
King would be forcibly seized by the Guises, and recognizing that 

milit., ed. Petitot, 128— verj' interesting; and a letter of an eye-witness in Bull. 
de la Soc. de I' hist, du prot. frang., XIII, 5. 

On March 16, 1562, an ordinance of the king of Navarre enjoined the captains 
and lieutenants of each quarter of Paris who were elected by the bourgeoisie to 
appoint ensigns, corporals, and sergeants, and to enlist all the men capable of 
bearing arms in their divisions, both masters and servants (Capefigue, 234., 235). 

1 I/Aubespine to his brother, the bishop of Limoges, French ambassador at 
Madrid {L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 22; C. S. P. Eng. For., No. 987, §7; 
manifesto of the prince of Conde to Elizabeth, April 7, 1562). 

2 This is D'Aubigne's comparison, II, 14, and n. 2. 

3 Delaborde, II, 48; Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, I, 285, n.; C. S. 
P. For., No. 987, §12, March 31, 1562. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 137 

the king of Navarre had surrendered completely to the Trium- 
virate, endeavored to remove the King to Blois. But Antoine 
hotly protested against so overt a move in favor of the Huguenots 
and Spain's ambassador fulminated so strongly against "the evil 
reputation" of L'Hopital,^ that the court was compelled to go to 
Eontainebleau instead.^ Even this place met with small favor 
on the part of the Guises, who would have preferred keeping the 
court in Paris. But when they urged the necessity of the queen's 
presence in the council in consideration of the grave state of affairs, 
Catherine caustically rejoined that she thought "it more meet to 
have regard to the health of the King than to inform so many wise 
men what was necessary to be done." This speech of the queen 
mother, however, was not said altogether in sarcasm. For instead 
of following the advice of the constable, who showed signs of 
resenting the Guise ascendency, that the crown repudiate and 
condemn the m^assacre of Vassy and announce its determination 
to maintain the Edict of January.^ Catherine in her alarm lest the 
rising of the Huguenots sweep the Valois dynasty from the throne 
began to incline toward Spain. "* For the time being the Trium- 
virate professed itself satisfied, intending after Easter to compel 
the court to repair to Bois de Vincennes, in order to have the King 
in their midst and thus strengthen with his name the authority 
of their actions.^ Great was the alarm, therefore, when the prince 
of Conde, accompanied by the admiral Coligny and D'Andelot, 
appeared before the gates of Paris on March 29 with three thousand 

1 "La mala reputacion que el chancellerio ne quanto a la fe." — Correspondance 
de Chantonnay, K. 1,497, ^^- i6> March 20, 1562. 

2 Tavannes, 271; C. S. P. For., No. 943, March 20, 1652. 

3 Paris, Negociations relatives au regne de Frangois IT, 880. 

4 "Monsieur le conestable ayst d'opinion que Ton (fasse) une letre patente par 

laquelle le roy mon &ls declere qu'i ne voult poynt ronpre I'edist dernier Ne 

distes rien deset que je vous dis de I'ambassadeur (Chantonnay) qui ayst yci, mes 
au contrere distes qu'i comense a se governer mieulx et plus dousement qu'i ne 
solet en mon endroyt." — Catherine de Medici to St. Sulpice, circa April 11, 1562, 
in L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 15, 16. This is a characteristic example of the 
queen's eccentric spelling. 

5 D'Aubigne, II, 15 



138 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

horse. ^ Immediately all the bridges were drawn up and prepara- 
tions made to meet an attack.^ Already extraordinary arrange- 
ments had been made for the defense of Paris. Strangers were 
compelled to leave the city; no persons except gentlemen were 
permitted to wear arms and these were limited to sword and 
dagger; only six gate's were open and these were under double 
guard.3 Failing to enter the city, the prince quartered his troops 
at St. Cloud and took possession of the highroad from Paris to 
Orleans at Longjumeau, while in Paris the duke of Guise, the 
king of Navarre, and the constable hastened forward the prepara- 
tions for war.4 But the prince of Conde refrained from the use 
of force. He gave out that he had as much right to enter the city 
under arms as had Guise, and complained of the fact that Guise 
and his following, on March 27, which was Good Friday, had 
visited the King and Queen at Fontainebleau, where the latter 
"made them strange countenance because the train came in arms 
to the court. "^ The apparent purpose of the prince of Conde 
was to cut Fontainebleau off from Paris, for the admiral lay at 
Montreuil, but four leagues distant, and thus force a reasonable 
settlement, or push matters to an extremity by making himself 
master of the Loire, thus cutting France in twain and having all 
Guyenne and Poitou and much of Languedoc at his back. Color 
was lent to this belief by the fact that so many men from the north- 
ern and eastern provinces were passing southward that a special 
body of troops was set to guard the hne of the Seine.^ 

1 U Amhassade de St. Sulpice, 22; C. S. P. For., No. 967, March 31, 1562. 
Elizabeth wrote to Conde to "remember that in all affairs second attempts be even 
more dangerous than the first." — C. S. P. For., No. 965, March 31, 1562. On the 
political theory of the Huguenots that the King was a captive and that they were 
struggling for his relief, see Weill, 66. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 969, March 31, 1562. 

3 Correspondance de Chantonnay, March 25, 1562, K. 1,497, No. 17. He 
reports also that a boat was captured coming down the Seine loaded with 4,000 
arquebuses and other ammunition, all of which was taken to the Hotel-de-Ville. 

4 Correspondance de Chantonnay, K. 1,497, No. 17, March 25, 1562. 

5 C. S. P. For., No. 967, §12, March 31, 1562. 

6 Correspondance de Chantonnay, April 2-4, K. 1,497, No. 18; April 11, ibid., 
No. 22. 



Mecujy 




I Cerccitijejs 



^ORLEANS 



HUGUENOT MARCH 

TO 

OR LEANS 

March 29- April 2. 1562 




Methuen &.Co. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 139 

But the Catholic leaders guessed Conde's purpose and by a 
coup de main seized the King and his mother and carried them 
off from Fontainebleau to Melun, a town strong enough to be 
withheld against any sudden enterprise. Thereupon the prince, 
perceiving that he had been outreached, marched toward Orleans' 
in spite of an order sent from the King, and undoubtedly inspired 
by Guise, that he should lay down his arms. An attempt to pre- 
vent him from reaching Orleans was blocked by a rapid advance 
of D'Andelot. 

Meanwhile the constable had assumed the direction of affairs 
in Paris, where on April 5 the Huguenot house of worship near 
the Port St. Antoine was torn down, the pulpit, forms, and choir 
burned, and fragments carried away as souvenirs by the mob. 
Troops patrolled the streets, arresting suspects, and a house to 
house visitation was made in search of Calvinist 'preachers. The 
same day the court came to Bois de Vincennes. During the next 
few days vain overtures were made to the prince. CoHgny and 
D'Andelot offered to meet the queen mother at such a place as 
she would appoint, provided the prince of Navarre, the future 
Henry IV, Damville, the constable's second son, and one of the 
Guises, were given into Orleans as hostages for them. Catherine 
was willing to accept the offer, but was overruled by Antoine of 
Bourbon, the duke of Guise, and Montmorency.^ Those who 
were least alarmed still looked for settlement at the hands of the 
General Council. But there were serious political difficulties, as 
well as those religious, in the way of this, the three principal ones 
being: (i) the summons of the council, which many Catholics 
even wished to be convoked by the Emperor, and not by 
the Pope; (2) the place of the council; (3) the authority of 
the council, which many Catholics wished to be above the 
Pope.3 

On April 12, 1562, at Orleans, the prince of Conde formally 

1 La Noue, Memoires, chap, ii, has described this march. 

2 Correspondance de Chantonnay, April 8 and 11, 1562, K. 1,497, Nos. 
21, 22. 

3 C. S. P. Ven., No. 283. 



I40 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

assumed command of the Huguenot forces/ his chief Heutenants 
being the admiral CoHgny and D'Andelot.^ The first civil war 
was a reahty. The city on the Loire for some years to come was 
destined to be the capital of the Protestants, dominating all the 
surrounding country. Blois and its chateau, Tours and its castle, 
Amboise, Saumur, Angers, and many other towns on the Loire 
and in Maine, were occupied by the Protestants. Orleans was 
reputed to have bread and wine enough in store to withstand a 
two years' siege,^ and the Huguenots seemed to have plenty of 
money for immediate necessities, thanks to their despoilment of 
the churches of the region, especially the rich abbey of Marmou- 
tier.4 Although the purposes of the Huguenots were clandestinely 
more political than religious, it was expedient to cloak them under 
a mantle of faith. s The political organization of the Huguenots 
was effected through the medium of an association, a form of 
organization of which there are many examples, . both Protestant 
and Catholic, during this troubleid period. The preamble of the 
instrument of government disclaimed any private motives or 
considerations on the part of those who were parties to the asso- 
ciation, and asserted that their sole purpose was to liberate the 
King from "captivity" and punish the insolence and tyranny of 
the disloyal and the enemies of the church. Idolatry, blasphemy, 
violence, and robbery, were forbidden within the territory of the 

1 According to Hotman who had left Orleans on May 29, the Huguenot forces 
consisted of 15,000 foot and 5,000 horse. — Letter to the landgrave, June 7, 1562, 
in Rev. hist., XCVII March-April, 1908, p. 304. 

2 Conde had entered Orleans on April 2. On the 7th he wrote to the Reformed 
churches of France, requiring men and money in the interest of the deliverance of 
the King and the queen mother and the freedom of the Christian religion (Me- 
moires de Conde, II, 212). 

3 Correspondance de Chantonnay, April 11, 1562, K. 1,497, No. 22. 

4 Ibid,, No. 21, April 8, 1562; De Ruble's edition of D'Aubigne, II, 18-20; 
C. S. P. For., No. 997, April 10, 1562; No. 1,043, §2> April 24, 1562. Cf. Boulan- 
ger, "La reforme dans la province du Maine," Revue des Sac. savant, des depart., 
26 ser., VII (1862), 548. 

s "Leurs desseins caches ont autre racine que celle de la religion, encores qu'ils 
le veuillant couvrir de ce manteau." — Catherine de Medici to St. Sulpice, L'Am- 
bassade de St. Sidpice, 59, August 9, 1562. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 141 

association, in order that all might know that it had "the fear of 
God before it." The association was to expire after the King had 
attained his majority.' 

The essential difficulties in the situation as it obtained at this 
time are manifest. The Huguenots declared the King to be a cap- 
tive in the hands of the Guises and themselves claimed to be loyal 
subjects in rebellion against tyranny.^ The Guises, on the other 
hand, branded the Huguenots as rebels and schismatics, although 
Catherine de Medici still had a lingering hope of restoring 
peace, and in official utterances carefully refrained from alluding 
to the prince of Conde as a rebel.^ Neither side would agree to 
lay down its arms without the other doing likewise, and neither 
dared take the initiative in this matter. The situation, therefore, 
was an irreconcilable one, which nothing but war could settle. 
The political determinations of the Huguenots were quite as fixed 
as their religious convictions, for part of their platform was the 
article agreed upon by the estates at Orleans to the effect that the 
cardinal of Lorraine, the duke of Guise, the constable, and the 
marshals Brissac and St. Andre, should render an account of their 
stewardship.'^ How far politics governed the situation is evidenced 
by the fact that late in April the king of Navarre and Montmorency 
began to weaken in their attitude when it was known that Conde 
dominated the middle Loire country, Touraine, Maine, Anjou, 

1 "Declaration faicte par monsieur le prince de Conde, pour monstrer les 
raisons qui I'ont contrainct d'entreprendre la defense de I'authorite du roy, du 
gouvernement de la royne, et du repos de ge royaume" (Orleans, 1562); cf. C. S. P. 
For., No. 1,003, Orleans, April i, 1562. 

The prince of Conde is said to have issued a coinage of his own at this time 
with the superscription, "Louis XIII." Chantonnay, however, says that they were 
medals (K. 1,497, No. 27, May 2, 1562). See the memoir of Secousse: "Dis- 
sertation ou Ton examine s'il est vrai qu'il ait ete frappe, pendant la vie de Louis 
ler, prince de Conde, une monnie sur laquelle on lui ait donne le titre de roi de 
France," Mem. de I'Acad. roy. des inscrip. et bell, lettres, XVII (1751); Poulet, 
Correspondance du cardinal de Granvelle, III, 85. Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, 
303, is convinced the story is a fabrication. 

2 Correspondance de Chantonnay, April 11, 1562, K. 1,497, -^o- 22. 

3 K. 1,497, No. 21, April 8, 1562. 

4 C. 5. P. For., No. 1,013, §^^2, April 17, 1562. 



142 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

and much of Normandy; when it was learned that the cities of 
Lyons/ Toulouse, Caen, Rouen,^ Dieppe, Troyes, Bourges,^ and 
the provinces of Dauphine, Provence, and Poitou, had declared 
for the Huguenot cause; and when troops were pouring into 
Orleans by thousands.^ 

If the Guises and the marshals Brissac and St. Andre could 
have acquitted themselves with so little discredit as Antoine of 
Bourbon or the constable, it is possible that a compromise might 
have been made even yet.s But such an issue was impossible under 
the circumstances. The guilt of Vassy still hung over the duke, 
for he had not yet been absolved either by the Court of Parlement 
or by the peers of France. Having appealed to force, force re- 

1 Archives curieuses, ser. I, IV, 175. 

2 Rouen was taken in the night of April 15. Floquet, Histoire du parlement 
de Normandie, II, 380. 

3 Raynal, Histoire du Berry, IV, 35. 

4 The stopping of the couriers in the service of Spain by the Huguenots was a 
source of great anxiety to Chantonnay. April 8 he wrote to Philip advising that 
the couriers be sent via Perpignan and Lyons in order to avoid being intercepted, 
as the Huguenots commanded the whole line of the Loire. Cf. Letters to Philip 
II, April 24, 1562, K. 1,497, No. 25; K. 1,497, No. 21; K. 1,497, No. 28. 

His letter of May 5 (K. 1,497, No. 28) describes the adventure of a courier 
bearing a dispatch of the bishop of Limoges. He was given twenty blows with a 
knife, but managed to escape. St. Sulpice reports a similar experience of "le 
chevaucher de Bayonne" in a letter to Catherine, June 30, 1562. D'Andelot 
intercepted a letter from the duke of Alva (K. 1,497, No. 26, April 28, 1562) and 
the prince of Conde one from the bishop of Limoges to Catherine de Medici (K. 
1,497, No. 33). The activity of the Huguenots in Gascony gave the French and 
Spanish governments special disquietude because they continually overhauled the 
couriers bearing official dispatches between Paris and Madrid. The letters of 
St. Sulpice contain many complaints because of the rifling of his correspondence 
(see pp. 30, 35, 37, 38, 41, 59). But the Huguenots were not the only ones who 
scrutinized letters unduly. Philip II frequently asked to be shown the letters of 
Charles IX and his mother to his wife, so that St. Sulpice advised Catherine always 
to send two letters, one of which was to be a "dummy" to be shown to the King 
{L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 136). The Spanish ambassador told Philip he would 
have to come out into the open and declare war to protect his own interests (K. 
1,497, No. 26, April 25, 1562). He anticipated as early as this the probable com- 
bination of the French Huguenots and the Dutch rebels, and warned Margaret of 
Parma to be on her guard (Correspondance de Chantonnay, K. 1,497, Nos. 30, 33, 
to Philip II). 

5 C. S. P. For., No. 1,043, §2, April 24, 1562. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 143 

mained the only method of settling the great dispute that divided 
France, and Guise daily assembled horse and foot in Paris in expec- 
tation of battle.^ 

The formidable nature of the Huguenot rising by this time had 
so increased the fear of Catherine de Medici that she completely 
surrendered to the Triumvirate and resolved to appeal to Spain 
for help. On April 19 she sent for Antoine of Navarre, the duke . 
of Guise, the constable, and the two marshals, Brissac and St. 
Andre, to whom she declared that she had been badly advised 
hitherto, and that she now trusted to their support. Montmorency 
at once proposed to ask the nuncio to petition His Holiness to send 
money and troops to the help of Catholic France. But Spain, 
not Rome, was the political cornerstone of the Catholic world, 
and it was now that the momentous resolution was taken to invite 
Philip II to lend assistance. Catherine de Medici, who shortly 
before this time had looked upon the prospect of Spanish inter- 
vention with apprehension, was now in favor of it. At Catherine's 
instance the Triumvirate formally invited Spain's support in a 
joint letter which was accompanied by Antoine of Navarre's written 
profession of the Catholic faith. ^ Two weeks later, May 8, 
Charles IX himself formally soHcited military assistance of PhihpII.^ 

1 On April 24 the cardinal of Lorraine came to Paris with 1,000 horse (C 5. P. 
For., No. 1,043, §ii> April 24, 1562; Corresp. de Chantonnay, April 28, K. 1,497, 
No. 2). 

2 This famous document, which is dated April 21, 1562, is in K. 1,496, B, 14, 
No. 61, and is on exhibition in the Musee des Archives. Chantonnay's letter to 
Philip II on April 24 sheds an interesting light on the situation. In it the ambas- 
sador advises the King to write personally to the queen mother, but not to write 
individually to the others, but rather a single letter, because if Antoine of Navarre 
were not addressed as King of Navarre he would refuse to receive it, whereas if the 
letter were written to all in common, this complication might be avoided (K. 1,497, 
No. 25). 

3 The Spanish King acceded to this request oh June 8, 1562 (Philip II to 
Margaret of Parma; Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, II, 
218-23. 

He promised to send 10,000 foot and 3,000 cavalry, chiefly Italians and Ger- 
mans; cf. De Ruble, Antoine de Bourbon et Jeanne d'Albret, IV, 214. At about the 
same time the constable appealed to Rome through Santa Croce, for a loan of 
200,000 ecus and a body of soldiers (Arch, cur., VI, 86). 



144 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Catholic Switzerland' Catholic Germany,^ Savoy, the Pope,^ and 
other princes of Italy were also looked to.'* The queen mother 

^ The Swiss Diet, which met at Soleure on May 22, offered 6,000 infantry to 
be commanded by the captain Froelich (Letter of Hotman in Revue hist., XCVII, 
March-April, 1908, 305). 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 6, §1, May 2, 1562. The Spanish ambassador was deeply 
incensed at Catherine for making this new overture. The intermediary was the 
Rhinegrave, but Chantonnay persuaded the leaders not to recognize him {Cor- 
resp. de Chantonnay, April 28, 1562; K. 1,497, No. 26). The duke of Savoy 
offered to furnish 10,000 footmen and 600 horse, 3,000 of the former and 200 of 
the latter to be at his expense. This was the fruit of Chantonnay's interview with 
Moreta, the Savoyard ambassador, early in April, when he discussed with him a 
possible restoration of the fortresses in Piedmont (K. 1,497, ^°- ^^> April 8, 1562). 

3 The Pope offered to give 50,000 crowns per month. 

4 "Suisses, lansquenetz et reystres, seront en ce pays devant la fin de ce moys, 
sans vostre secours d'Espagne." — L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 24, June 12, 1562. 
It must be understood that in many European states, especially those of Germany, 
the maintenance of regular troops did not yet obtain as a practice. Instead, the 
princes depended upon mercenary forces recruited by some distinguished captain. 
These troops, which answered to the condottieri of Italy were called Lanzhnechts 
or Reiters. Languet stigmatizes this practice in Epist. ad Camerariam, 28; cf. Arch, 
d' Orange-Nassau, I, 104. In Protestant Germany there was a feeling that the policy 
of France threatened to extinguish the gospel in other regions besides France and 
therefore should be opposed by common consent. The elector palatine, the 
landgrave, and Charles, margrave of Baden, planned to send an embassy into 
France in the name of the Protestant princes to allay the dissensions there, and to 
ask that the same liberty of religion might be granted as was allowed by the edict 
of January 17. Many advocated an open league between all the Protestant states 
for mutual protection, in the hope that the mere knowledge of such a league would 
restrain their adversaries (C. S. P. For., No. 11, May 2, 1562). Opinion was 
divided in Germany as to whether Conde also should make foreign enrolments, or 
whether the territories of those who had suffered these levies to be made should 
be invaded by the Lutherans. Agents of the Guises circulated a printed apology 
for the massacre at Vassy (D'Aubigne, II, 16, and n. 2; La Popeliniere, I, 327). 

Rambouillet and D'Oysel, the agents of France in these countries (St. Sulpice, 
77; Corresp. de Catherine de Medicis, I, 364) made much of the King of Spain's 
aid and carried credentials from Chantonnay. The duke of Guise even sent an 
agent, the count of Roussy, to England, to discover Elizabeth's intentions, and to 
ascertain the military state of her kingdom (cf. Beza, Hist, des eglises reformees, 
ed. of Toulouse, I, 373; De Ruble, IV, 103 ff.; L Amhassade de St. Sulpice, 13; C. 
S. P. For., No. 1,037, April 21, 1562). 

The argument of the Catholics with the German Protestant princes and 
imperial cities was that the Huguenots were political dissidents and rebels, and 
that religion was a pretext with them (L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 65). In order 
to counteract this teaching the Huguenots circulated a pamphlet written by Hot- 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 145 

did not know that already the Triumvirate had anticipated her re- 
quest by asking' the Spanish King to instruct the regent of Flanders 

man throughout the Rhine provinces which attempted to neutralize the differences 
between Calvinism and Lutheranism. (This curious pamphlet is printed in 
Mem. de Conde, II, 524; La Popeliniere, I, 325. In this capacity Hotman was 
invaluable. Some of his letters at this time are in Mem. de I' Acad.. CIV, 662-65.) 

The German princes as a whole tried to prevent soldiers from going out of 
Germany. The landgrave Philip of Hesse arrested an officer of cavalry who was 
secretly enlisting horsemen in Hesse and who said he was doing so for Roggendorf , 
tore up the officer's commission before his face, and made him swear to leave 
his castle without a passport. The duke of Wiirttemberg also took care that 
no volunteers should march through Montbeliard into France, and Strasburg 
forbade anyone to enlist under severe penalties. The bishops of the Rhine kept 
quiet; only in Lorraine and the Three Bishoprics was Catholic enlisting unimpeded. 
The recruiting-sergeant of the Guises in Germany was the famous Roggendorf, 
a Frisian by birth who had been driven out of his native land in 1548 and since then 
had lived the life of an adventurer, part of the time in Turkey. (See an interesting 
note in Poulet, I, 542, with references.) On April 8 the king of Navarre in the 
name of Charles IX, signed a convention with him engaging the services of 1,200 
German mounted pistoleers and four cornettes of footmen of 300 men each 
(D'Aubigne, II, ^:^, n.). These forces entered France late in July and reached the 
camp at Blois on August 7 (D'Aubigne, II, 76, n. 3). 

One reason why the Protestant princes of Germany were unable immediately 
to make strong protest to the French crown was that the envoys of the elector 
palatine, the dukes of Deuxponts and Wiirttemberg, the landgrave of Hesse and 
the margrave of Baden, were unprovided for a month with letters of safe conduct, 
by the precaution of the Guises, with the result that Roggendorf led 1,200 cavalry 
in the first week in May across the Rhine and through Treves into France for the 
Guises, though the Protestant princes did all they could to hinder the passage and 
expostulated with the bishops of Treves and Cologne for allowing them to be 
levied in their territories. Failing greater things, the Protestant princes of Germany, 
in July, 1562, put Roggendorf under the ban in their respective states (cf. C. S. P. 
For., Nos. 244 and 269, June 13 and July, 1562). In the end, despite the enterprise 
of the Guises, the French Catholics may be said to have been unsuccessful beyond 
the Rhine, that is in Germany proper, but not in Switzerland or the episcopal states. 
D'Oysel, who was sent by Charles IX in July to Heidelberg (D'Aubigne, II, 97, 
and n. i; Le Laboureur, I, 430) received a short and definite answer "which showed 
him how groundless were his hopes of aid from that quarter, a document to which 
so much importance was attributed that it was forthwith printed for wider circula- 
tion" (C. S. P. For., No. 414, August 3, 1562, and the Introduction, xi). 

The king of Spain's captains had money and were ordered that as soon as 
soldiers were taken from Germany into France they should enlist men for the de- 
fense of his territories (C. 5. P. For., No. 11, May 2, 1562). In the bishopric of 
Treves soldiers were enrolled easily, as the passage from thence to France was 
,«hort {ibid., No. 74, May 19, 1562). 

In Switzerland the Huguenots endeavored to prevail upon the Protestant 



146 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

to hold the troops there in readiness "because Madame de Parma 
would not let a single horse go out of Flanders without orders."' 
By the end of June these troops were ready. They were almost 
all Spaniards and Italians, then universally regarded as the best 
soldiers in the world. ^ Philip II, though, was actuated by other 
motives besides zeal for Cathohcism.^ He feared lest the south 
of France might attack Navarre, owing to the identification of 
Jeanne d'Albret with the Huguenot cause, and so sent reinforce- 
ments to Fontarabia and Pampeluna; a movement which weak- 
ened the prince of Conde by preventing Grammont's Gascon 
troops from going to Orleans. "^ 

The war went forward in spite of lack of funds on both sides. 
In order to pay the expenses of the war in Brittany _ Catherine 
authorized the seizure of the plate in the churches. But the duke 
of Etampes, who was governor of Brittany, was cautious about 
carrying out this order. "The people are so rehgious and scrupu- 

cantons to prevent the Catholic cantons from lending support to Guise (C. 5. P. 
Ven., No. 285, April 29, 1562). The Guises asked for a levy of foot from the papist 
cantons of Switzerland in the King's name {Corresp. de Catherine de Medicis, I, 
289, April 8, 1562). The cantons promised to send 15 ensigns; but the Protestant 
cantons especially Bern, told the prince of Conde that they would not suffer any 
soldiers to be levied against him in their territory, on pain of confiscation of goods. 
Nevertheless the Catholic Swiss managed to make some enrolments, the men 
quitting home on July 8. On August 7 these mercenaries arrived at Blois, having 
come by way of Franche Comte (De Thou, Book XXX). They were commanded 
by Captain Froelich (see D'Aubigne, II, 148; Zurlauben, Hist, milit. des Suisses, 
IV, 287 ff.; Letter of Hotman in Rev. hist., XCVII, March-April, 1908, 307). 

1 Correspondance de Chantonnay, K. 1,497, No. 22. 

2 "La fleur du monde." — L'Ambassade de St. Sidpice, 41. For details see 
ibid., 24, 26-29, 36-38, 41, 50-54; Correspondance du cardinal de Ferrare, 
Letter 40, July 3, 1562; D'Aubigne, II, 91, and n. 2; Ruble, Antoine de Bour- 
bon ei Jeanne d'Albret, 220. 

3 St. Sulpice was dubious of Philip II's purpose and suspected political de- 
signs "sous le titre de notre secours" (U Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 39). Neverthe- 
less he believed in Philip's methods of repression — even the Inquisition. See his 
letter to the French ambassador at Trent on p. 28. 

4 C. S. P. For., No. 46, §3, May 11; No. 86, §1, May 23, 1562. Cf. No. 248— 
Challoner to Elizabeth from Bilboa, June 24, 1562. Spain established a naval 
base at La Reole to help Noailles, lieutenant of the King in Guyenne (L'Ambassade 
de St. Sulpice, 61). 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 147 

lous in these things," he wrote, "that if they found out that we 
wanted to take it, they would not readily endure it, especially in 
Lower Brittany." Instead he advised that the plate of the churches 
be deposited in some principal town in each bishopric, "under 
color of retaining and guarding it there, and that a tax of from 
15 to 20 livres be imposed upon each person for this purpose, 
figuring that this expedient would produce from 15 to 20,000 livres.^ 
The Huguenots let no money pass from the provinces under their 
control, even going so far as to destroy the government registers 
in the towns they took.^ 

Every day increased the interest of the populace in the struggle.^ 
"If the prince of Conde should come to Paris," wrote an English- 
man in Paris, "they could not tarry there, on account of the fury 
of his soldiers and the populace."^ In Dauphine, De la Mothe 
Gondrin, lieutenant of the duke of Guise, was slain at Valence 
by the Protestants. It is just to say, however, that he was the 
aggressor. Accompanied by sixty or eighty gentlemen he went 
out into the country and came upon a worshiping company of 
Calvinists "and left not one of them ahve." A Huguenot noble- 
man, Des Adresse who styled himself "lieutenant of the King in 
Dauphine," acquired a reputation in the region as sinister as that 
of Montluc in Gascony. The whole southeast of France seemed 
up in arms. 5 Grenoble, Macon in Burgundy, Chalons in Cham- 

1 Correspondance de Chantonnay, K. 1,497, -^o- ^i, April 8, 1562; C. S. P. 
Eng. For., No. 1,058, April 27, 1562; ibid., No. 6, §2, May 2, 1562. 

2 Correspondance de Chantonnay, K. 1,497, ^^- 33i M!ay 2, 1562. Philip has 
commented on the margin to the effect that if the Catholics were as active as the 
Huguenots they would be better off. 

3 Chantonnay particularly notices this in a dispatch of April 18, 1562, K. 1,497. 
So also does the Tuscan ambassador {Neg. Tosc, III, 481, June, 1562). Travel- 
ing in France was dangerous (Windebank to Cecil, C. S. P. Dom., XXII, 53, 
April 8, 1562). 

4C. S. P. Dom., XXII, 60, April 17, 1562. Paris wore red and yellow 
ribbons — the Guise colors. "Ceux de Paris disent publiquement qu'on doit 
renvoyer la reine en Italic et qu'ils ne veulent plus avoir de roi qui ne soit catholique. 
lis en ont d'ailleurs un que Dieu leur a donne, c'est le grand 'roi de Guise.' " 
Letter of Hotman in Rev. hist., XCVII, March-April, 1908, 305. 

5 D'Aubigne, Book II, chap. iv. 



148 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

pagne, Moulins in Bourbonnais, where- they destroyed the tombs 
of Antoine's ancestors/ were taken by the Huguenots. Lyons, by 
reason of its proximity to Geneva, was radically Huguenot, and 
this sentiment was stimulated still more by the great discontent 
that prevailed among the lower classes, engaged in silk manufac- 
turing and other industries.^ In Normandy it was even worse. 
At Rouen the Huguenots routed the CathoHcs and seized the 
government. 3 On May 14 Mahgny took Havre-de- Grace, which 
astonished and affrighted the CathoHcs because it stood at the 
mouth of the Seine and made open communication between the 
Huguenots and the Enghsh easy. At Caen,^ Bayeux, and most 
places in Lower Normandy, the inhabitants defaced the images 
in the monasteries and parish churches, and arrested the King's 
revenues coming to Paris. ^ Caudebec, which revolted on May 
15, was besieged by the Guisards, but had placed men in it pre- 
viously and so saved itself. In Dieppe, where the revolt followed 
hard upon news of Vassy, a conflict between Protestants and 
CathoHcs resulted in the death of 150 persons.^ Terrible cruelties 
were committed at Angers^ by the Protestants. 

Amid this almost spontaneous insurrection involving provinces 
widely separated from one another, the Ile-de-France and Bur- 
gundy adhered to the crown and the Catholic cause, the former 
wholly from inclination, the latter in part because of the adroitness 

1 Correspondance de Chantonnay, K. 1,497, ^o- 3^' May 28, 1562. 

2 The importance of Lyons so near the cantons of Switzerland and Geneva 
is emphasized in Neg. Tosc, III, 488, July 6, 1562. 

3 Correspondance de Chantonnay, April 24, 1562, K. 1,497, No. 25. On the 
situation in Rouen, see Mem. de Conde, III, 302 ff.; and the diary of a citizen in 
Revue retrospective, V, 97. Montgomery who was in western Normandy about 
Vire sent the King's letter back to him after polluting it with filth, at least so says 
Chantonnay, K. 1,497, No. 27, May 2, 1562. 

4 See Carel, Histoire de la ville de Caen sous Charles IX, Henri III et Henri 
IV, Caen, 1886. 

5 The duke of Bouillon, commandant of Caen Castle, made an attempt to 
restrain the populace (C. S. P. For., No. 303, §7, July 12, 1562). He posed as a 
neutral, but ultimately became a Huguenot. 

6 C. S. P. For., No. loi. May 27, 1562. 

7 Ibid., No. 68, May 18, 1562; cf. No. 69, §10. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 149 

of Tavannes, the brilliant captain, who foiled the Huguenot assault 
upon Dijon,' and saved Chalons-sur-Saone.^ 

In spite of these occurrences, however, abortive negotiations 
for peace filled the ten days between the i8th and the 28th of May.^ 
In Paris it was expected that Conde would attack the city. The 
government's force was not sufficient to take the field, and twenty- 
five pieces of artillery were paraded through the streets to make 
an impression and to induce the clergy and Parisians to contribute 
money for this rehgious war-making/ Popular opinion in Paris- 
was bitterly hostile to the Huguenots, but the bourgeois were not 
inclined to go down into their pockets and so, when the cowardly 
king of Navarre published a proclamation on May 26^ expeUing 
all Protestants from Paris and leaving their goods at the mercy 
of their adversaries, it was hailed with delight by the capital. 
Mobs of Catholics forcibly expelled Huguenots from the city and 
destroyed their goods. The city was so full of men-at-arms, high- 
waymen, and robbers at this time that every householder was 
required to keep a light in his street window until daybreak.*^ 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 69, §16, May 18, 1562. 

2 Forbes, II, 8; cf. Planche, Histoire de Bourgogne, IV, 556. 

3 Upon these negotiations see Mem. de Condi, III, 384, 388, 392, 393, 395. 

4 C. S. P. For., No. 106, §2, May 28, 1562. The King's army had but twenty- 
two pieces of artillery at the beginning of the first civil war (Rel. ven., II, loi). 

5 C. S. P. For., No. 107, May 28, 1562; No. 174, June 9; Mem. de Condi, III, 
462. Another edict of the King put the military government of Paris in the hands 
of the provost of the merchants and the echevins of the city ("Declaration portant 
permission au Prevost des Marchands et aux Echevins de la Ville de Paris, d'eta- 
blir es Quartiers d'icelle, des Capitaines, Caporaux, Sergents des BandeS; et 
autres Ofi&ciers Catholiques. A Monceaux, le 17 May 1562;" also in Ordonnances 
de Charles IX, par Robert Estienne, fol. 187; Mim. de Conde, III, 447]), in com- 
pliance with a popular request made a week earlier; " Ordonnance du Roy, donnee 
en consequence de la Requite des Habitans de Paris, par laquelle il leur est permis 
de faire armes ceux que dans cette Ville sont en etat de portes les armes, et d'en 
former des Compagnies, sous des Capitaines qui seront pas eux choises," May 
10, 1562 (Mim. de Condi, III, 422, 423). The Venetian ambassador wisely ob- 
served "Percioche dar liberamente I'armi in mano ad un populo cosi grande e cosi 
furiosi, benche fosse cattolico, non era farse cosa molto prudente." — Rel. ven., II, 
98; cf. Nig. Tosc, III, 280. 

6 See Chantonnay's letter to Philip II of May 28, inclosing the edict and giving 
these and other details, K. 1,497, ^o- 36- 



150 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Risings in many parts of the country continued to be heard of;^ 
Vendome, La Charite, Auxerre, Montargis, Poitiers, together with 
most of the towns of Saintonge and Angoumois,^ either declared 
for the prince of Conde or were taken by him. But at Toulouse 
the Huguenots suffered heavily.^ In NTormandy, there was great 
fear of Enghsh intervention/ 

Overtures for peace came to nothing because the Huguenots 
made the withdrawal of the Triumvirate a condition precedent 
to their laying down of arms.^ The prince contended that he 
could not be secure unless the duke of Guise, the constable, and 
the marshal St. Andre retired from the court. The queen mother in 
reply represented that it was not right, during the King's minority, 
to remove from him such important personages ; that the Catholics 

1 "Cependant tout se ruyne et se font tous les jovirs infiniz meurdres et saccage- 
mens de part et d'autre .... vous verrez par les chemyn's une partye de la 
pitie qui y est, et ce royaume au plus callamiteux estat qu'il est possible." — L'Au- 
bespine a I'Eveque de Limoges, June 10,1562; L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 22. 

2 Chaumet, " Proces-verbal des titres et ornements brules par les protestants," 
Les protestants et le Cathedrale d'Angouleme en 1562, in Bull de la Soc. arch., etc. 
4^ sen, VI, 1868-69 (Angouleme, 1870), 497. 

Gellibert des Seguins, Aubeterre en 1562; "Enquete sur le passage des pro- 
testants en cette ville, le pillage de I'eglise Saint-Jacques et la destruction des titres 
et papiers du chapitre," Bull, de la Soc. arch., etc., 1862, 3^ ser., IV (Angouleme, 
1864). 

3 The strife in Toulouse was occasioned by an edict of the parlement of Tou- 
louse (May 2) forbidding Calvinist worship and the wearing of arms by the Hugue- 
nots (K. 1,495, No. 35; a printed copy of the edict). Both parties foug'^t for three 
days for possession of the H6tel-de-Ville where arms were stored. Nearly 5,000 
Protestants, it is said, were killed {Corresp. de Chantonnay, 1497, No. 36, May 28, 
1562; Commentaires de Montluc, Book V, 234-37, La Popeliniere (who saw it), I, 
311 ff.; D'Aubigne, Book II, chap, iv; Lettres du cardinal de Ferrare, No. 30, 
June 23, 1562; cf. Histoire veritable de la mutinerie, tumulte et sedition jaite par les 
prestres de St. Medard contre les Fideles, le Samedy XXVII juin de 1562; Bosquet, 
Histoire sur les troubles advenus en la ville de Tolose, Van Ij62, le dix-septiesme may, 
Nouv. edition, avec notes, Paris, 1862; Histoire de la delivrance de la ville de 
Toulouse, 1862. 

4 Stanclift, Queen Elizabeth and the French Protestants {ljjg-60), Leipzig, 
1892. 

s Coll. des lettres autographes. Hotel Drouot, March 18, 1S99, No. 19; Cardinal 
Chatillon to the queen mother, May 28, 1562, protesting that peace is impossible 
without the banishment of the Guises from court. Cf. R. Q. H., January 1879, 
14, 15- 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 151 

in Paris had taken up arms to oppose the Edict of January, and 
that if the Huguenot soldiery would retire to their homes they might 
live there as they liked, while a council (of which he should be 
a member) considered some better means of settlement.' Gradu- 
ally the hostile armies — the prince of Conde at the head of the 
Huguenots and the duke of Guise, the constable, the marshal 
St. Andre and the recreant king of Navarre with the Catholic host 
— drew near to each other. ^^ An attempt was made to take Jargeau, 
eight miles from Orleans; but fearing lest its capture would cut 
supplies off from Orleans, Coligny and D'Andelot destroyed the 
bridge there. This forced the Catholic captains to change their 
intention, and they traversed the Beauce so as to surprise Beau- 
gency, fourteen miles from Orleans, midway between Orleans and 
Blois, where there was a bridge across the river. On June 1 5 the 
two forces arrived near the bridge at almost the same time and a 
fight seemed imminent. The two armies were about five miles 
apart, and about the same distance from Orleans. Both being 
south of the Loire, there was no river to hinder an engagement. 
There were many vineyards between them, which was an advantage 
to the prince, who had more infantry than cavalry, while Guise 

1 "Tous jours sur le point que messieurs de Guise, conestable et mareschal 
de St. Andre se retirent de la cour." — L'Aubespine, secretaire d'etat a son frere M. 
de Limoges, ambassadeur en Espagne, June 10, 1562; L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 
22; cf. the same to the same, June 12, p 24. On these unsuccessful negotiations, 
see D'Aubigne, II, 33-35; La PopeHniere, I, 323; Mem. de. Conde, 489; La Noue, 
Mem., Book I, chap, ii; Ruble, Antoine de Bourbon et Jeanne d'Albret, IV, 
chap. xix. 

Conde further justified the revolt of the Huguenots on the ground th^ the 
King and his mother were "prisoners" in the hands of the Triumvirate, but the 
statement was too transparent to be believed. Catherine herself, in order to dis- 
prove it, took the King to Monceaux with her (Corresp. de Chantonnay, May 28, 
1562, K. 1,497, No. 36), whence she wrote to the Parlement of Paris explaining the 
reason of her action. The Parlement promptly approved her course. Mem.- 
journaux du due de Guise, 495, col. 2: "Acte par lequel la Reinemere et le Roy 
de Navarre declarent que la retraite voluntaire que font de la cour du due de 
Guise, le Connestable et le mareschal de St. Andre, ne pourra porter prejudice a 
leur honneur" (May 28, 1562). 

2 "Nostre camps et a douse lyeu d'Orleans et byentot nous voyront set que 
en sera." — Catherine de Medici to Elizabeth of Spain, June 13 or 14, 1562, in 
L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 31. 



152 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

had 7,000 horse, D'Aumale having come from Normandy with 
his force. The Cathohc forces were divided: Guise lay north 
of the river, beyond Beaugency, Paris- ward; D'Aumale's detach- 
ment was on the other side of the river at Clerie, midway between 
Orleans and Beaugency, having the town and the bridge in his 
hands; while Navarre was established at Vernon, a league from 
Beaugency.' 

The condition of the country around Orleans at this time, con- 
sidering that a state of war existed, was not bad. Conde had 
plenty of money for the moment, having secured the riches of th^ 
churches of Bourges. Food was good and plentiful in Orleans 
and bread was cheap. Everything the Huguenots took they paid 
for, as a matter of policy,^ although large funds were not in sight 
and they looked anxiously to England for 100,000 crowns, offering 
the notes of the leaders as security or else the bonds of some of 
the most notable Reformed churches, as Rouen and Lyons. The 
Huguenot army made a brave display. Many of the gentlemen 
were rich and wore long white coats {casaque blanche) of serge, 
kersey, or stramell, after the old manner, with long sleeves over 
their armour.^ The truce expired on June 21 (Sunday), but only 

1 A parley was held with the usual lack of success on June 21 between the 
prince of Conde and his brother at Beaugency, which was neutralized for the 
purpose (D'Aubigne, II, 37, and n. 4). The baron de Ruble discovered the 
correspondence of the principals in the interview. The king of Navarre exhorted 
his brother to accept the conditions offered by the King, i. e., to let the Huguenots 
dwell peaceably in their houses until a council settled the matters in dispute. He 
promised in any event that the Protestants should have liberty of conscience. But 
when the prince insisted on having the edict enforced in Paris even, Antoine 
replied that the crown would never consent to such terms (C S. P. For., No. 329, 
§§i, 2, July 17, 1562). Even while the truce existed straggling prisoners were taken 
daily by either side. (For other military details, see Mem. de La Noue [ed. 
Pantheon litt.], 284; D'Aubigne, II, 39, 40; Beza, Histoire des eglises 
re}orinees, I, 540, 541; and the "Discours ou recit des operations des deux armees 
catholique et protestante dans les premiers jours de juillet," in De Ruble, Antoine 
de Bourbon et Jeanne d'Albret, IV, 414). 

2 Not so the royal troops, which were quartered upon the towns of the region 
and nearly consumed the people by their exactions (Claude Haton, I, 279). 

3 The Catholics, in derision, called the Huguenot gentry "millers." During 
the interview on June 9 between the prince and the queen mother, the latter said: 
"Vos gens sont meusniers, mon cousin," a fling which the prince of Conde more 
than matched by the rejoinder: "C'est pour toucher vous asnes, madamel" 
This anecdote is related by D'Aubigne, II, 35. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 153 

light skirmishing was indulged in while specious negotiations were 
continued by Montmorency/ But the Catholic leaders offered 
such hard conditions that Conde would not accept them. Among 
others it was demanded that all preachers should be banished from 
France, together with the prince himself, the brothers Chatillon, 
and the other Huguenot leaders, until the King was of age. 

During this delay the prince lost the advantage he had 
possessed. For the duke of Guise, the constable and Marshal 
St. Andre returned from Chartres to the camp again, which 
was between Beaugency and Blois, which lends color to the theory 
that it was they who overruled Antoine of Navarre and Catherine. 
After the rupture of the truce, the Catholic army marched to Blois, 
which they battered for a day and a night, assaulted and entered, 
although the inhabitants offered to let them in at the gates. When 
the magistrates of the city offered the keys to the duke of Guise, 
he pointed to the cannon with him, saying they were the keys he 
would enter by. At the same time St. Andre took Poitiers and 
Angouleme and drove La Rochefoucauld into Saintonge with the 
aid of Spanish troops.^ When informed of the duke's proceedings 
at Blois, Conde marched to Beaugency, which, after bombardment, 
was entered on July 3, the most part of those who were left to 
guard it being killed. ^ Then seeing his own fortunes diminishing 
daily, he retired to Orleans, with scarcely 3,000 horse and 6,000 
footmen. The prince was in doubt what next to do; whether to 
retire to Lyons and join with the baron des Adresse,^ who had 

1 Cf. Guise's letter to the cardinal of Lorraine, Appendix III; C. S. P. For., 
No. 238; No. 264, §3, June 29. 

2 Ibid., No. 425, August 5, 1562; Archives de la Gironde, XVII, 270. The 
constable seized Tours and Villars Chatellerault (D'Aubigne, II, 41-44). For 
the operations of Burie in Perigord, see Archives de la Gironde, XVII, 271. At 
Bazas a local judge, with the aid of Spanish troops actually crucified some Calvinists 
{ibid., XV, 57). 

3 La Noue admits that the boasted discipline of the Huguenots was disgraced 
by their atrocities here {Mem. milit., chap, xvi; cf. C. S. P. Ven., No. 288, July 
16, 1562). 

4 On the war in Lyonnais, Dauphine, Provence, and Languedoc, see D'Au- 
bigne, Book III, chap. vii. The notes are valuable. Des Adresse proclaimed 
all Catholics in Lyonnais, Burgundy, Dauphine, and Limousin rebels to the King 



154 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

acquired Grenoble, Valence, and Chalons in Burgundy, despite 
Tavannes who kept the field with his forces,' and was reputed to 
have 8,000 foot and 1,500 horse besides 6,000 Swiss sent from Bern 
and Lucerne^ or to retire to Gascony where the queen of Navarre 
was, or thirdly to go to Rouen and thereby keep Normandy. In 
the end, however, he and Coligny stayed in Orleans. The 
remainder of his force was either dispersed in the various towns or 
dismissed. 

The Protestants stood in dire need of outside aid during this 
summer.^ A few days after Conde had retired within Orleans, 
D'Aumale took Honfleur (July 21). In Paris mobs killed almost 
hourly men, women, and children, notwithstanding an edict to 
the contrary under pain of death. Arms were in the people's 
hands, not only in Paris but in the villages. Neither the King nor 
the queen mother had the means to rule them, for the king of 
Navarre and the duke of Guise were then at Blois, with the result 
that Paris did much as it pleased. The leaders contemplated the 
recovery of Touraine, Anjou, and Maine, and all the towns upon 
the Loire, and then proposed to go into Normandy and recover 
Havre-de-Grace, Dieppe, and Rouen. In pursuance of this pro- 
ject the duke of Guise took Loudon and Chinon in Touraine. In 
the same month Mondidier was entered by the Catholics upon 
assurance that all the Protestants therein should live safely; but 
notwithstanding the promises they were all cut to pieces, robbed, 
or driven forth. Numbers of men, women, and children were 
drowned in the night with stones about their necks, at Blois, Tours, 
and Amboise, and those towns which surrendered to the king of 
Navarre. 

While these events were taking place in the Loire country, the 

(C. S. P. For., 340). He was not a Huguenot in the proper sense, but rebelled 
against the King, and sided with the Huguenots because he was jealous of La 
Mothe Gondrin, who was made lieutenant du roi instead of himself in Dauphine 
(see D'Aubigne, II, 49, n. 5). 

1 D'Aubigne, II, 48. He recovered Chalons-sur-Marne in June and Macon 
in August (Tavannes, 339, 343). 

2 It was at this moment that D'Andelot was sent to Germany for succor (C. 5. P. 
For., No. 374, §7, July 27, 1562). 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 155 

duke of Aumale again approached Rouen on the 29th of June, and 
planted his batteries before St. Catherine's Mount, but succeeded 
in doing little in spite of his long battery. He hoped to recover 
Havre-de- Grace after Guise had seized the towns upon the Loire. 
The great fear of the French was lest Havre-de- Grace should be 
given by the Huguenots into the hands of the English, and the 
atrocious practice of D'Aumale was likely to further such conduct 
on the part of the Huguenots,' for he promised the peasantry 
not only the privilege of sacking the chateaux of the nobles, but 
also to relieve them of all taxes. As a result of this vicious policy, 
trade was dead and whole families of the nobility retired to Dieppe, 
abandoning their homes. ^ 

Violence increased both in the cities and in the provinces. In 
the southeast Somarive committed great cruelties in Orange, killing 
men, women, and children wherever he went.^ But the achieve- 
ments of Montluc, "the true creator of the French infantry"'* 
were the conspicuous feature of the war in the south. By his own 
confession this famous soldier "rather inclined to violence than 
to peace, and was more prone to fighting and cutting of throats 

1 At Pont Audemer the duke caused a preacher to be hanged, and afterward 
some of the best citizens and even boys (C. S. P. Ven., 355, July 23, 1562). There 
was also fear lest the English would land troops in Guyenne (Archives de la Gironde, 
XVII, 284). 

2 c. S. P. Ven., No. 354, July 23, 1562; Claude Haton, I, 301; C. S. P. For., 
185, June 13, 1562; cf. 246, §24; but see the duke of Aumale's disclaimer to the 
queen mother, of July 9, asserting that those of Rouen, Dieppe, and Havre were 
plundering indiscriminately (Appendix IV). 

3 D'Aubigne, II, 52-73. The prince of Orange found himself in a very 
difficult position. His principality was continually exposed to the attacks of the 
king of France and those of the Pope from Avignon. Moreover, the conduct of 
the Huguenots compromised him on account of their violence toward the priests 
in the sanctuaries (Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, I, 71, 72; Raumer, 
II, 211 [1561]). 

4 Forneron, Histoire de Philippe II, I, 294. MontlUc is unequaled in the 
keenness of his political penetration. The baron de Ruble says with truth that the 
old soldier rivals Hotman and Bodin in this respect. Witness the paragraph written 
in December, 1563, to be found in the memoir he sent to Damville justifying 
his resignation of the lieutenancy of Guyenne (Commentaires et lettres de Monthic, 
IV, 297, 298 and note). 



156 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

than to making of speeches."^ The war in the southern provinces, 
it is plain, was one of both politics and religion. The practices 
of the Huguenots penetrated the whole administrative machinery. 
The sieur de Burie, king's lieutenant in Guyenne, was old and 
overcautious, and not without suspicion of Calvinism,^ while 
Duras, the Huguenot leader was so active that the crown had 
sent the veteran of the siege of Sienna into Guyenne in January, 
1560, with a special commission.^ The Huguenots tried to buy 
Montluc oE through one of their captains formerly with him 
before Sienna, who came to him saying that the church at Nerac 
had made him their captain. Montluc's reply nearly took the 
captain off his feet. "What the devil churches are those that 
make captains ?" was his fierce question. ^ He speedily began to 
make his name formidable by hanging six Huguenots without 
process of law "which shook great fear into the whole party." 

Montluc's arrival was in the nick of time for the Catholics of 
the south. He thought that if the Huguenots had been more led 
by soldiers and not so "guided by ministers, they had not failed 
of carrying Bordeaux and Toulouse. But God preserved those 
two forts, the bulwarks of Guyenne, to save all the rest." Montluc 
was everywhere at once, never resting long in any place, holding 
his foes in suspense everywhere, and not only was himself in con- 
tinual motion, but also with letters and messages perpetually 
soHcited and employed all the friends he had.^ His troops were 
few in numbers and so ill-paid that he sometimes was reluctantly 
compelled to ransom his prisoners. "We were so few that we were 

1 There are few more interesting annals in the history of war than the racy, 
egotistical, garrulous, yet sometimes pithy narrative of this veteran leader. The 
fifth book of Montluc's Commentaires is wholly taken up with the war in Guyenne 
in 1562-63. His correspondence during the same period is in IV, 11 1-225; 
add Beza, Histoire des eglises reformees, which is remarkably accurate and impartial. 

2 Coll. Tremont, No. 51. — Antoine de Bourbon to M. de Jarnac, from the camp 
at Gien, September 12, 1562, relative to sending forces into the south to join those 
of Burie and Montluc. 

3 Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, II, 345, and note. His title was "con- 
servateur de la Guyenne" (O'Reilly, Histoire de Bordeaux, 221). 

4 Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, II, 357. 

5 Ihid., 416, 421. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 157 

not enough to kill them all," he comments. "Had the King paid 
his companies I should not have suffered ransom to have been in 
use in this quarrel. It is not in this case as in a foreign war where 
men fight for love and honor. In a civil war we must either be 
master or man, being we live as it were, all under a roof." He 
was as good as his word and "shook a great terror into the country 
everywhere." When he appeared before Agen he "wondered 
that the people should be so damnably timorous and did not better 
defend their religion." Instead "they no sooner heard my name 
but they fancied the rope already about their necks." Yet terrible 
as the old war-dog was, he still waged war according to the rules 
of the game. He is outspoken in condemnation of the conduct 
of the Spanish companies sent by Philip II which joined him before 
Agen,^ The importance of Montluc's services in the south was 
great. He helped save Toulouse and Bordeaux to the govern- 
ment and the subsequent capture of Lectoure, and the notable 
battle of Vergt in Perigord (October g, 1562) prevented the Hugue- 
nots south of the Loire from joining the forces of the prince of 
Conde, who thus narrowly lost the battle of Dreux.^ 

As the Catholic cause mended, the situation of the Huguenots 
darkened. Four thousand Swiss in June had joined Tavannes 
in Burgundy and thereby Dijon, Macon, and Chalons-sur-Sa6ne 
were made safe. Late in July 6,000 lansquenets passed through 
Paris toward the camp at Blois. Pope Pius IV sent his own 
nephew to the aid of Joyeuse with 2,500 footmen, one thousand 

1 "The French spared the women there, but the Spaniards killed them, saying 
they were Lutherans disguised. These ruffians slew some 300 prisoners in cold 
blood — not a man escaped saving two that I saved." — Montluc, II, 457, 458. 
When these Spaniards later mutinied and deserted in the summer of 1563, not even 
the Catholics regretted their departure {L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 144, 152). 
For the terms on which they came, see Montluc, IV, 452, 453; D'Aubigne, II, 
91, n. 2; 94, n. 4. 

2 See Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 37 ff.; De Thou, Book XXXIII; 
D'Aubigne, II, 95; Bull, de la Soc. de Vhist., du prot. jrang., II (1854), 230; C. S. P. 
For., 837 and 415, §12 (1562). I have purposely built this account upon Mont- 
luc's narration in Book V of his Commentaires. An additional source for Lectoure 
and the battle of Vergt is his long letter to Philip II, published in L'Ambassade 
de St. Sulpice, 84-86; add also De Ruble, Antoine de Bourbon et Jeanne d'Albret, 
244-56. 



158 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of whom were ' ' Hispainolz. ' ' ^ The Huguenots impatiently awaited 
the coming of German pistoleers and footmen, to be brought by 
Casimir, the second son of the count palatine, accompanied by 
D'Andelot who had been sent into Germany for assistance. But 
the German princes were slow in responding, especially to the 
demand for money, ^ so that the prince of Conde actually promised 
to give them the pillage of Paris I^ D'Andelot prssed the Rhine 
on September 22, 1562 — three weeks too late to relieve Bourges — 
with 2,000 German horse and 2,000 musketeers, who figured in 
the battle of Dreux in the next December."* France had seen 
nothing like these reiters in days heretofore. Their coming created 
both consternation^ and curiosity. Claude Haton in. vain sought 
the meaning of the word. 

The word reiter had never had vogue in France within the life of the 
oldest of men, and one had never used the word until the present, although 
the kings of France had been served in all their wars by Germans, Swiss, 
and lansquenets, who are included under this word and name of Germany or 
Allemaigne. I have taken pains to inquire of numerous persons, who are 
deemed to know much what was the signification of this word "reiter," but 
I have not found a man who has been wise enough to tell me what I wished 
to know.^ 

1 Mem. de Conde, III, 756: "Fragment d'une lettre de I'ambassadeur du due 
de Savoye, a la Cour de France. De Paris du dernier de juillet, 1562;" cf. Neg. 
Tosc, III, 492, 493. 

2 See an article by De Crue, "Un emprunt des Huguenpts franjais en Alle- 
magne et en Suisse (1562). Pleins pouvoirs donnees a M. d'Andelot par le prince 
de Conde — Orleans, 7 juillet, 1562," Rev. dliist. dip., 1889, 195. 

3 U Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 77; C. S. P. For., 884, October 9, 1562. His 
instructions are in Mem. de Conde, III, 630. See a letter of Hotman, July 27, 
T562, to the elector palatine, Mem. de I' Acad, des inscrip. et belles-lettres, CIV, 668. 
The original is in the archives at Stuttgart. This letter was communicated to the 
duke of Wiirttemberg by the count palatine and was sufficient temptation to lead 
the first of the famous hordes of German reiters across the border into France. 

4 Claude Haton, 267. See in the Mem. de Conde, III, some letters relating to 
the coming of the reiters in this year. 

5 "Ceux-ci [reiters] sont toujours prets a se battre, mais en tout le reste, ils 
n'obeissent a personne et montrent la plus grande cruaute. lis pillent tout, et cela 
ne leur suffit pas. lis devastent tout et detruisent les vins et les recoltes." — Letter 
of Hotman in Rev. hist., XCVII, March-April, 1908, 311. 

6 Claude Haton, I, 294. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 159 

In order to pay the reiters and to find money, a taille was im- 
posed upon the Huguenots of all classes, in all towns and villages 
under their control, upon nobles, priests, merchants, bourgeois, 
and artisans. But as this means was very tedious, the prince had 
recourse to the gold and silver vessels, chahces, and crosses of 
the churches which the Huguenots had pillaged. He also seized 
upon the government receipts from the gabelle and other taxes of 
the King in all the villages and elections controlled by the Huguenots, 
even the moneys of the royal domain, and the revenues of the 
churches.^ 

Meanwhile on August 19 the siege of Bourges had begun. The 
city was defended by about 3,500 soldiers, but the circuit of its 
walls was very great. It was well provisioned for a time, and 
had considerable munitions and artillery of an inferior sort, but 
neither cannon nor culverin. Half the town was protected by a 
great marsh near by; the other half was fortified. It was the 
plan of D'Andelot, who had entered Lorraine with 2,000 horse 
and 4,000 foot, commanded by the duke of Deuxponts, feeling he 
could do nothing in time for Bourges, to cut off Paris by securing 
the passages of the river at St. Cloud and Charenton.^ Accord- 
ingly the constable and the duke of Guise, learning of the approach 

1 Ibid. From an account in the Record Office, indorsed by Cecil, we know 
what the wages of these hireling troops were: "The pay of every reiter is 15 
florins the month. The entertainment of the ritmeisters is a florin for every 
horse, and each cornet contains 300 men. The lieutenants have, besides the pay 
of one reiter, 80 florins. The ensign, besides the pay of one reiter, has 60 florins, 
eight officers having, besides a reiter's pay, 15 florins apiece. The wage and ap- 
pointment of 4,000 reiters with their officers per mensem equals 122,048 livres 
tournois, equals 81,532 florins. The colonel 3,000 florins; 15 officers equals 300 
florins. To every ten reiters there must be allowed a carriage with four horSes, 
at 30 florins per month. Total (not counting the money rebated) 127,448 livres 
tournois, or 84,966 florins. Total expense for four months, counting the levy, 
569,792 livres tournois equals 379,861 florins. 

"For levying 6,000 lansknechts: for their levying, a crown per month. 
The pay of every ensign of 300 men per month, 3,500 livres tournois. The 
whole expense for four months 395,000 livres tournois equals 263,337 florins. 
Sum total with other expenses, 1,759,792 livres tournois equals 211,174,175, 
2d." 

2 D'Andelot passed the Rhine on September 22, too late to relieve Bourges. 



rl6o THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of the reiters, dispatched D'Aumale with a commission to levy- 
all men of war in Champagne, Brie, and Burgundy, both foot and 
horse, and to sound the tocsin for the purpose of raising new levies 
for the King if those which he first raised should not suffice, and 
to make a great camp of all these men for the purpose of combating 
the reiters.' But D'Aumale dallied so long,^ to the intense chagrin 
of his army, which clamored to "frapper dessus les lif-lof de reis- 
tres,"^ that the German troopers were able to cross the river 
Seine at Chanceaux, whence they took the road above Auxerre, 
crossed the Yonne, and so joined the prince of Conde at 
Orleans. 

It would have been much better for France, and especially for 
the provinces of Champagne, Brie, and Burgundy, if D'Aumale 
had attempted to repulse the reiters, for his soldiers were the ruin 
of the villages where they lodged, and any action, even defeat, 
would have been better than license and idleness. When it was 
known that the reiters had evaded the force sent against them, 
the King, seeing new villages of France taken every day, sent orders 
to all those who still adhered to the crown to the effect that they 
should be on their guard night and day, for fear of being taken 
by surprise. For greater security commissions were dispatched 

1 See Claude Haton's vivid description of this recruiting. The new levies 
did great damage to the country of Brie and Champagne, for they were kept in 
villages for more than five weeks before going to camp, and all this time the reiters 
were approaching closely (I, 295). 

2 Claude Haton, I, 295. He adds that Catherine de Medici sent him secret 
orders to do so. But there is no evidence of this in her correspondence, and 
D'Aumale's subsequent blunder in 1569 by which the Huguenots were able to get 
possession of La Charite justifies the inference that his action was due to incapacity 
as a general. 

3 The long presence of the reiters in France during the civil wars introduced 
many German words into the French language, for example biere {Bier); blocus 
{Blockhaus); boulevard {BoUwerh); bourgmestre (Burgmeister); canapsa (Knap- 
sack); carousser (Garaus machen); castine (Kalkstein); halte (halt); trinquer (trinhen 
and of course reitre (Reiter) and lansquenet (Lanzknecht) . See Nyrop, Grammaire 
historique de la langue frangaise, I, 51. Rabelais abounds with such words, e. g., 
"Je ne suis de cas importuns lifrelofres qui, par force, poultraige et violence, 
contraignent les lans et compaignons trinquer, voire carous et alluz qui pis est." 
Rabelais, Book IV, prologue. So also in Book IV, prol.: "Je n'y ay entendu que 
le hault allemant." 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR l6i: 

authorizing the election of a gentleman of honor and credit to be 
town-captain in every town.^ 

The Catholic and Huguenot position with reference to each 
other between Paris and the Loire was now somewhat as follows : 
the former held Chartres, Bonne val, Chateaudun, Blois; the 
latter St. Marthurin, Montargis, and Gien. On August 31, 1562, 
the surrender of Bourges took place. The crown guaranteed life, 
property, and liberty of conscience to the commandant and soldiers 
and inhabiants of the town, in consideration of an indemnity of 
50,000 livres "pour avoir ete si gracieusement traites."^ But the 
Catholic leaders were in doubt what next to do, for all the Hugue- 
nots were within the towns, neither occupying the open country 
nor having a camp outside the walls. The king of Navarre urged 
the siege of Orleans, but the council was not in agreement with 
him for two reasons: first, on account of the plague which was 
there ; secondly because they had hopes that Navarre might pre- 
vail upon his brother to desert the Huguenot cause, and so spare 
them the exercise of force. For these reasons it was resolved- 
not to push the siege of Orleans and to attack Rouen instead, 
where the duke of Aumale was already.^ 

: ? Ill Pro^vins, on their own initiative, the townspeople taxed their town, baili- 
wick, and ressort (seneschausee) to the amount of 7,000 livres tournois, the sum being 
imposed upon persons of every class, those who had gone to the war in the King's 
service alone being exempted. This levy created great discontent, especially 
among the clergy, who appealed against the bailiff and the gens du roi to the Court 
of Aids, alleging that the levy was made without royal commission and without 
the consent of those interested. The bailiff compromised by promising the clergy' 
to restore the money paid by them and not to demand more of them, and so the 
process was dropped (Claude Haton^ I, 296, 297). 

2 On the siege of Bourges see D'Aubigne, II, 77 ff.; Raynal, Hisi. du Berry, 
IV; Mem. des antiq. de France, ser. Ill (1855), II, 191 ff.; Neg. Tosc, III, 494, 
495; Boyer, Doc. relat. au regime de Vartillerie de la ville de Bourges dans le XV !« 
siecle, 641; in Bidl. du Comite de la langue, de Vhist. et des arts de ia France, III, 
1855-56. The capitulation of Bourges is in Mem. de Conde, III, 634. See also 
the "Journal of Jean Glaumeau," edited by M. Bourquelot in MSm. de la Sod. 
des antiq. de France, XXII. Philip II expressed his displeasure at the terms to 
St. Sulpice, saying, "que aulcunes des conditions semblaient du tout assez con- 
venables des sujetz a leur roi" (L'ambassade de St. Sulpice, 70, 75. Alva's opinion 
is. given at p. 78). 

3 Claude Haton, I, 285. Philip II told St. Sulpice "quant un voyage de Nor- 
rnandie, bien qu'il I'estimait etre bien entrepris, qu'il semblait qu'il eut ete meilleur 
de s'adresser a Orleans, oii etaient les chefs, afin qu'ils ne.se grossissent d'avantage." 
— L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 75. 



l62 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The Guises were now fully aware of the formidable nature of 
the revolt of Normandy, there being danger of their also losing 
western Normandy, where the duke de Bouillon held Caen castle, 
but was disposed to be neutral. They planned, therefore, to send 
the greater portion of their new forces, Germans and Swiss, to 
the aid of D'Aumale, who had advanced against Rouen after 
D'Andelot gave him the slip, for they were little needed in the Loire 
country. Roggendorf, Guise's chief German agent, at this time 
arrived in Paris with 1,200 German pistole ers, well armed and 
mounted; the Swiss captain, Froelich had brought fifteen ensigns 
of Swiss, and the Rhinegrave was in Champagne with two regi- 
ments of foot and three hundred pistole ers.' 

The constable and the duke of Guise in fear of English support, 
resolved to concentrate the greatest part of their force against 
Rouen and Havre-de- Grace. Another motive lay in the fact that 
Paris was in want; for the Huguenots recognized that if Rouen, 
Havre-de- Grace and Dieppe were well held, coercion of Paris was 
not impossible. The condition at Dieppe and Havre-de- Grace 
was the source of more anxiety to the government than any other 
matter. These towns, owing to their situation, were the chief 
keys to France, without which neither Paris nor Rouen could be 
free. Havre-de- Grace was of more use to France than Calais 
as a port of supply, and daily all those who escaped from Pont 
Audemer, Honfleur, Harfieur, and the Protestants between Dieppe^ 
and Rouen were flocking thither. 

The chief hope of the French Protestants was based upon the 
expected aid of England. Early in April, 1562, the prince of 
Conde and the admiral had solicited her support.^ But the anxiety 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 374, §7, July 27, 1562; No. 510, §1, August 10, 1562. 
For the operations of the reiters around Paris in the summer of 1562 see D'Aubigne, 
Book III, chap, xii; De Ruble's notes are valuable. 

2 Daval, Histolre de la reformation a Dieppe, i^^y-id^J. Publ. pour la I^e 
fois avec introd. et notes par E. Lesens (Societe rouennaise de bibliophiles. 
2 vols., 1879). 

3 C. S. P. For., Nos. 975, 976, 1,002. This solicitation w^as in the nature of 
an acknowledgment of an expression of interest in them made by the English queen. 
For as far back as March she had sent assurances of her interest to Conde and the 
admiral {ibid., No. 965, March 3, 1562). 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 163 

of Elizabeth in the welfare of Protestantism beyond sea was not 
disinterested, any more than Philip II's Catholicism, The legality 
of her position as queen required her adherence to everything 
anti-Catholic, to which may be added the influence of the political 
aims of Philip II with reference to England, especially his interest 
in the doings of Mary Stuart and Spanish tyranny in the Low 
Countries, both of which jeopardized England. Her ambassador 
in France observed truly when he wrote her: "It standeth Your 
Majesty, for the conservation of your realm in the good terms 
it is in, to countenance the Protestants as much as you may."^ 
Another practical end to be gained by Enghsh support of the 
Huguenots was the possibility of recovering Calais.^ Yet in spite 
of their deep religious animosity and their political hostility to one 
another, England and Spain were in so peculiarly complicated 
a relation that neither state wished to go to war. Philip II assured 
Charles IX that although Elizabeth would squirm at sight of 
Spanish assistance given to France, she dared not strike back in 
aid of the Huguenots, and would have to compel herself to view 
things from afar.^ The key to this extraordinary situation is to 
be found in the commerce of the Low Countries. The duke of 
Alva flatly said that his master could not afford to break with the 
English because of the commercial injury he would sustain in the 
Netherlands.'^ The same proposition, reversed, was in like stead 
true of England; her commercial interests in Holland and Flanders 
were too great to be risked. 

But the good prospect of regaining Calais coupled with the 
fear lest the reduction of France to Spanish suzerainty would 
entail greater danger to England in the long run than the loss of 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 973, April i, 1562. 

2 Ibid., No. 1,013, §13, April 17, 1562. Elizabeth considered the suggestion 
of her ambassador so favorable that she sent Sir Henry Sidney to France in 
the spring to aid Throckmorton. See the instructions in C. S. P. For., Nos. 1,063, 
1,064, April 28; 1562. 

3 "Et il assure que bien qu'elle prenne a depit de voir que les catholiques 
soient secourus de deja, elle est persuadee que son meilleur est de se contenir et 
regarder de loin ce qui adviendra." — L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 55, July, 1562. 

4 "Reponses du due d'Albe a St. Sulpice, October 8, 1562/' L'Ambassade de 
St. Sulpice, 79; cf. 92, 93, 103. 



1 64 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

her commerce beyond sea, at last persuaded Elizabeth to support 
the Huguenots, upon certain conditions, the ultimate one being 
restoration of Calais to England.^ Accordingly, in September, 
1562, the queen offered to land 6,000 men to guard the towns in 
Normandy, to take Havre and Dieppe under her protection, and 
receive into them the refugees of the Reformed church, and prom- 
ised not to abandon Havre without the prince's consent, nor 
receive Calais from the opposite party. The vidame of Chartres 
agreed to deliver the custody of Havre-de- Grace to the queen's 
lieutenant on condition that the latter would recompense him and 

I Throckmorton, English ambassador in France, urgently pressed such a 
policy, "even though it cost a million crowns" (C. S. P. For., No. 418, August 4, 
1562). It was in the form of alternative offers to the Huguenots. Upon receipt of 
Havre-de-Grace, England was to deliver three hostages in guaranty of the compact, 
to the count palatine of the Rhine, and to pay in Strasburg 70,000 crowns; also to 
deliver at Dieppe 40,000 crowns within twenty days after the receipt of Havre-de- 
Grace, and 30,000 crowns within twenty days following, to be. employed by Conde 
upon the defenses of Rouen and Dieppe and in the rest of Normandy, with the 
understanding that Havre-de-Grace was to be delivered to France upon the res- 
toration of Calais, and the repayment of the 140,000 crowns advanced. The 
second offer was to this effect: Upon receipt of Havre-de-Grace," England was to 
deliver three hostages and deposit 70,000 crowns in Germany, and to send 6,000 
men into Normandy to serve at Rouen and Dieppe (C. S. P. For., No. 268, July, 
1562; cf. Nos. 662, 663). After prolonged negotiations which were conducted by the 
vidame of Chartres, the treaty of Hampton Court was framed on these lines, on 
September 10, 1562 (Mem. de Conde, III, 689; Mem. du due de Nevers, I, 131; 
D'Aubigne, II, 79, 80). Elizabeth's proclamation and justification of her action 
is at p. 693 of Mem. de Condi. 

The alliance between the prince of Conde and the English, with the implied 
loss of Calais to France, more than any other fact, reconciled Catherine de Medici 
to Spanish assistance. After August she personally urged this aid (U Ambassade 
de St. Sidpice, 58, 59). Still Philip emphatically gave her to understand that 
"si I'ambassadeur de Espagne avait fait esperer que son maitre declarerait la guerre 
aux Anglais . . . . il avait depasse ses instructions, car les Espagnols etaient 
depuis si longtemps lies avec ces peuples qu'il etait impossible de rompre cette 
alliance." — St. Sulpice to Charles IX, November 12, 1562 (L'Ambassade de St. 
Sulpice, 93). 

The constable was at Yvetot in October, 1562, at the time of the descent of the 
English upon Havre and wrote to Charles IX that he was unable to take the field. 
At a later season he complains to Catherine of the calumnies heaped upon him, and 
bluntly says "that he is not in the humor to endure such things." — Coll. de St. 
Petersbourg, CHI, letters pertaining to the house of Montmorency; La Ferriere, 
Rapport, 46. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 165 

Conde by annual pensions or assigned lands, because of the loss 
of their estates and goods in France. In pursuance of this com- 
pact, on September 24, 1562, the English proclamation for the 
expedition into Normandy was published. It was time, if success 
were to crown the enterprise, for in Havre troubles and enemies 
multiplied and patience with the English was on the point of 
breaking. "No prey happens to a sleeping fox," wrote the vidame 
impatiently to the English admiral. On October i, 1562, the 
English sailed from Portsmouth for Havre, and on Sunday, Octo- 
ber 4, entered the roadstead of Havre at three in the afternoon, 
and immediately landed as many men as they could with the tide. 

The English occupation of Havre-de- Grace startled the gov- 
ernment into new activity before Rouen, and the King determined 
to take it before English assistance could be afforded.^ The town 
was well supplied with provisions and had plenty of small arms, 
but was short of artillery and gunpowder. The garrison numbered 
about 4,000, under command of Montgomery, the guardsman 
who had accidentally killed Henry II in tournament, for Morvilliers, 
the former chief in command in Rouen, had hesitated about the 
introduction of English soldiers and had been replaced. 

In the first week of October the attack of the royal forces upon 
Rouen was renewed with fury and the fortress on St. Catherine's 
Mount was taken by them. Desperation soon prevailed in the 
beleaguered city and there was talk of conditional surrender if that 
could be effected, until the arrival of a few companies of English 
revived the courage of the Rouennais and the fight was renewed. 
But the procrastinating caution of the English by this time over- 

I Archambault to St. Sulpice, L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 71; Charles IX 
to St. Sulpice, September 15, ibid., 74. The camps on the Loire were broken up 
on September 14, only sufficient forces being left to invest Orleans. The soldiers 
were sent to Normandy via Montargis, Angerville-la-Riviere, and Etampes, leaving 
posts at Gien, Beaugency, and Pithiviers to keep the lines open between north and 
south and to prevent D'Andelot from getting to Orleans. 

On the siege of Rouen, see Claude Haton, I, 286-89. The city was taken 
October 26 (Floquet, Hist, du Parlement de Normandie, II, 435). 

On Huguenot excesses in Rouen, see an arret of the Parlement of Rouen, 
August 26, 1562, in Mem. de Conde, III, 613, and another ordering prayers for the 
capture of Fort St. Catherine, October 7 {ibid., IV, 41). 



j66 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

reached itself. In spite of the importunities of Throckmorton, '^ 
the EngHsh government was reluctant to venture its arms beyond 
the seaboard,^ although Throckmorton's arguments were rein- 
forced by every other English agent in France, Rouen being repre- 
sented as "such a jewel for them that by no means is it sufferable 
to become an enemy. "^ All urgency was in vain. The instruc- 
tions to the earl of Warwick, the English commander in Havre- 
de- Grace, were to the effect that if requested to send aid to Rouen 
or other places he should make some "reasonable delay," without 
offending them.'* It is easy to see from such instructions and the 
policy pursued by the English government in France that its inter- 
est was purely practical and in no sense sentimental or religious, 
England wanted to hold Havre-de-Grace in pawn for Calais, under 
cover of pretending to support the Huguenots. 

By mid-October, however, it had become plain that this narrow 
policy could not be so rigidly adhered to. The success of the 
CathoHc armies in Normandy was even endangering Havre-de- 
Grace, and Havre-de- Grace was not nearly so favorable a point of 
vantage for the English as Calais had been, for there the pale 
protected the city proper; in the city at the Seine's mouth the 
fortifications were weak and, worst of all, the location was a poor 
one for defense. ^ With the coming of winter, it would be possible 
for the French with slight effort to prevent much intercourse by 
sea between Havre and the Enghsh ports, while already the coun- 
try roundabout was being devastated by the German reiters. 
D'Aumale was reported to have said — and there was justification 
of the statement — that the English garrison might make merry 
as it pleased, the winter and famine would cause them to pack 
homeward faster than they had come. Too late the English at 

I See his singular leUer to Cecil of July 29, 1562, in C. S. P. For., No. 389. 

' Cf. articles for the English agent Vaughan, of August 30, in Cecil's hand- 
writing {ibid., No. 550). 

3 Ihid., No. 763, Vaughan to Cecil, October 4, 1562; Forbes, II, 89. 
4C. S. P. For., No. 790, October 7, 1562; Forbes, II, 93. 

s Cf. C. S. P. For., No. 803, October 8, 1562; Forbes, II, loi; report of a 
military expert to Cecil. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 167 

last determined to succor Rouen after the fall of St. Catherine's 
Mount,' and relief troops were sent forward to Rouen from Havre- 
de- Grace and Dieppe. An intrepid English captain named 
Leighton (he was afterward made governor of Guernsey), with a 
handful of men, made his way into the city, but substantial assist- 
ance did not come until the middle of October. Even then mis- 
fortune overtook the EngUsh. The approach was made by the 
river in six small ships, but one of them struck on a sand bar near 
Caudebec and was intercepted by Damville, so that only 600 
EngHsh got into the town.^ 

On the morning of the i6th, Montgomery and two of the chief 
men of the city came out of Rouen, under a flag of truce, and spoke 
with the queen, returning a second time with fresh proposals, but 
nothing resulted. The Huguenots demanded, first of all, liberty 
of preaching, and of living according to their religion. Besides 
this, they insisted that the King should not put a garrison in Rouen, 
and as security for the observance of these conditions they required 
hostages from the King, to be kept by them at Ha vre-de- Grace. 
In the second interview they enlarged the conditions; namely, 
that the Edict of January might be observed and that they might 
preach freely in the cities, although by the edict preaching was 
permitted only outside of cities.^ Moreover, they insisted on this 
agreement being extended to all towns of. France; and in order to 
give this convention a general effect, the prince of Conde was to 
confirm it. For the observance of all these conditions they de- 
manded as hostages the prince de Joinville, eldest son of the duke 

1 It was taken by assault by the duke of Guise (Corresp. de Catherine de Medicis, 
I, 414, note; Claude Haton, I, 285; Mem. de Conde, IV, 41). 

2 The English aid had been divided into three bodies, that portion which 
entered Rouen being only the vanguard. It was the middle portion which fol- 
lowed in ships up the river and was captured by Damville. The third body was 
of the rear guard and returned to Havre-de-Grace (C. S. P. Ven., No. 302, October 
14, 1562). In the fight off Caudebec 200 English were killed, and 80 made prison- 
ers, all of whom were hanged by the French — a more rigorous punishment than 
even sixteenth-century war nominally allowed (ibid., For., Nos. 870, 872, October 17, 
18, 1562). 

3 Ibid., No. 901, October 23, 1562. 



l68 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of Guise, and brother of the marshal Brissac,^ superintendent of 
the King's revenues. 

Although Montgomery was unaware of it, the government 
already, alarmed by the EngHsh intervention, had made overtures 
to the prince of Conde in Orleans. But in each case, a condition 
required would not be yielded. The demand of the Rouennais 
that the Edict of January be revised so as to permit Protestant 
worship in all towns broke off negotiations with them. In the 
overtures made to Conde and Coligny, restitution of all in rebellion 
to their estates and offices was promised, as also the assurance to 
the Huguenots that they might enjoy their religion peaceably in 
their houses, but public worship, even without the towns, was not 
to be permitted. The Protestant leaders seem to have been 
inclined to yield to these terms, although they implied a reduction 
of their religious privileges, but insisted that the crown should 
assume the payments due to Conde's German auxiliaries. The 
government balked at this proposal, and the prince and the admiral 
themselves balked when the king of Navarre declared that D'Ande- 
lot's German troopers and the Huguenots should unite to expel 
the English from France, so that in the end neither set of negotia- 
tions was successful.^ 

During the successful assault upon Fort St. Catherine which 
followed the rupture of these negotiations both Antoine of Navarre 
and the duke of Guise were wounded, the former by an arquebus- 
shot in the joint of the shoulder, as it proved, mortally, because 
mortification of the wound could not be stayed.^ Montgomery 
fought furiously in the assault, which lasted seven hours, and 
threatened to use his sword upon any who might seek to yield. 
It was a desperate and vain battle, however.'^ The King's forces 

' C. S. P. Ven., October 27, 1562. 

2 Ibtd., For., 932, §4, October 30, 1562. 

3 For details see Corresp. de Catherine de Med., I, 420, note; Claude Haton, 
I, 287-91; and a relation in Arch, cur., IV, ser. i, 67. Also in Mem. de Conde, 
IV, 116. The same volume has some letters addressed to the queen of Navarre 
upon his death. Cf. Le Laboureur, III, 887. Claude Haton, I, 292, 293, has an 
interesting eulogy of him. 

4 Charles IX and his mother were eye-witnesses of this struggle, viewing it 
from a window of the convent of St. Catherine "from which they could see all that 
took place within and without the city." — C. S. P. Ven., October 18, 1562. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 169 

mined clear to the wall^of the town, and the havoc of their explo- 
sions could not be remedied. The breach in the walls made by 
both mine and shot was so wide that some of the royal force rode 
through on horseback.' On Monday, October 26, the besiegers 
fought their way through *and over the walls. In this supreme 
movement the EngHsh and the CathoHc Germans came sharply 
together. No quarter was given the EngHsh in the town, the 
command being given "that they should all pass the sword." 
Many of them were stripped naked by the victors. The wounded 
English who were found had their throats cut; the rest were sent 
to the galleys. The King entered Rouen the day after its capture, 
making his way over dead bodies which had been spoiled by the 
soldiers.^ The royal forces now had unlimited control of the 
Seine below Rouen; at Caudebec they staked half the river, so 
that ships and boats were compelled to pass close under their guns. 

1 It had been the queen's hope that Rouen might be saved from sack, and 
with this object she had offered 70,000 francs to the French troops if they would 
refrain from pillage. But such a hope was slight, for Rouen was the second city 
of the realm and one of great wealth (C. 5. P. Ven., October 17, 1562). More- 
over, " Guise proclaimed before the assault that none should fall to any spoil before 
execution of man, woman, and child" (ibid., For., No. 920, Vaughan to Cecil, 
October 28, 1562). Catherine de Medici also throws the responsibility upon the 
duke of Guise {Corresp., I, 430). For other details of the sack, see Castelnau, 
Book III, chap. xii. "Le ravage de ceste ville fut a la mesure de sa grandeur et a 
sa richesse," is D'Aubigne's laconic statement (II, 88). Fortunately, for the 
sake of humanity, the sack was stayed after the first day. The German troopers 
committed the worst outrages. The marshal Montmorency is to be given credit 
for mitigating the horrors. Montgomery, though at first reported captured, 
escaped to Havre, having disguised himself by shaving off his beard (C. 5. P. For., 
No. 939, October 30, 1562), and abandoned his wife and children, to the indigna- 
tion of Vaughan, who vented his outraged sentiments to Cecil: "A man of that 
courage to steal away, leaving his wife and children behind him" {ibid.. No. 920, 
October 28, 1562). 

Among those in Rouen who were officially executed were a Huguenot pastor 
by the name of Marlorat, with two elders of the church, a merchant and burgess 
of the city, named Jean Bigot, and one Coton; Montreville, chief president of Rouen, 
De Cros, some time governor of Havre-de-Grace, eight Scotchmen who had pass- 
ports of Mary Stuart to serve under Guise, and some French priests (D'Aubigne, 
II, 88; C. S. P. For., No. 950, §14, October 31, 1562; No. 984, §2, November 4, 
1562). 

2 C. S. P. Ven., No. 307, October 31, 1562; L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 91; 
"Montgomery qui les faisait tenir s'est sauve, laissant le peuple livre a la boucherie." 
— Letter of Catherine de Medici to St. Sulpice. 



170 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The Guises now anticipated a swift collapse of the Huguenot 
cause. All the chief towns in France save Orleans' and Lyons 
were either by inclination or compulsion obedient to the crown, 
which found powerful support from the property-owning and 
lawyer class. Politically and financially the government was 
stronger, although the court was in want of money at this time. 
The duke of Guise, the most notable captain and soldier in France, 
the constable and veteran marshals like Brissac and St. Andre, 
had made a combination too strong to be overcome. In this 
strait, the Huguenot leaders grasped at the last straw — the hope 
that the prince of Conde might succeed the king of Navarre as 
lieutenant of the realm by winning the support of liberal Catholics 
and the anti-Guisard element.^ There was ground for this hope 
if the Calvinists could be persuaded to be a little less radical, and 
if the Catholic religion would be suffered without criticism to be 
and remain the religion of France, and the Huguenots would make 
no further alteration in their form of worship than the English 
Reformation had done.^ 

Antoine of Bourbon, since sustaining the wound received 
at Rouen, had been gradually sinking, and died on board a boat 
on his way to Paris, October 26, after prolonged suffering."* Cond^ 

1 Orleans had 1,200 horsemen and 5,000 footmen in it, besides the inhabitants, 
with provisions to last six months. Almost all the weak places had been fortified 
with platforms, ravelins, and parapets. The counterscarp was roughly finished. 
There were nine or ten cannon and culverins with a good store of powder. The 
greatest menace was the plague which daily diminished the number of the Prot- 
estants (C. 5. P. Eng., 596, §6, September 9, 1562 — report of Throckmorton who 
was on the ground). 

2 C. S. P. Few., October 17, 1562. The Spanish ambassador had foreseen the 
possibility of such a contingency and early in April had cautioned Philip II not to 
play upon Antoine's expectations to the point of exasperation (K. 1,497, No. 17). 

3 C. S. P. Eng., 1,050, November 14, 1562. 

4 "His arm is rotten and they have mangled him in the breast and other parts 
so pitifully" — in the endeavor to cut out the mortified flesh. — C. S. P. For., 1,040, 
Smith to Cecil, November 12, 1562. Cf. No. 932, October 30; for other details see 
C. S. P. Ven., November 8, 9, 10, 13, 1562; Mem. de Conde, IV, 116; D'Aubigne, 
II, 85. The knowledge of his death was kept a secret for two days (C S. P. For., 
1,079, November 20, 1562). The Spanish court wore mourning for four days in 
honor of his memory {L'Ambassade de Si. Sulpice, 103). He was a "trimmer" 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 17 1 

now, by virtue of the arrangement made at the meeting of the 
States- General at Orleans, legally succeeded to his brother's 
ofiEice as lieutenant of the realm, and proceeded forthwith to send out 
commissions to the constable, marshals, and to all the governors 
of provinces and places, to repair to him as the King's lieutenant- 
general and governor of France. But in spite of the regulation of 
the estates, the court and Catholic party, by the advice of the 
cardinals of Ferrara, Lorraine, and Guise, the duke of Guise, the 
constable, and marshal St. Andre, with the special sohcitation of 
the Spanish ambassador who voiced his master's wishes with "a 
lusty sweUing tongue," resolved to establish the cardinal of Bour- 
bon in the authority the king of Navarre had held. * 

to the last, on his deathbed professing the confession of Augsburg, as a doctrine 
intermediate between Catholicism and Calvinism {Despatch oj Barbara [Huguenot 
Society], November 25, 1562). 

» "Le roi catholique est content que la reine mere ait I'entier gouvernement 
des affaires, tout en ayant pres d'elle le cardinal de Bourbon." — L' Ambassade de 
St. Sulpice, 109, January 19, 1562 (1563). 



CHAPTER VII 

THE FIRST CIVIL WAR (Continued). THE BATTLE OF DREUX 

(DECEMBER 19, 1562). THE PEACE OF AMBOISE 

(MARCH 19, 1563) 

After the fall of Rouen, the chief military design of the Guises 
seems to have been to protract the war, without giving battle, until 
the Germans with D'Andelot and Conde either deserted for lack of 
pay or were corrupted by them. Catherine's wish, on the other handy 
was to end the war by composition and not by the sword, fearing 
to have either party become flushed with success. In pursuance- 
of this policy numbers of the soldiers were permitted to go home, 
the war being considered to be practically at an end until the spring, 
except that garrisons of horse a,nd foot were kept in the towns, 
round about Orleans after the manner of a flying siege (sibge 
volante). But the rapid advance of the prince toward Paris from 
Orleans, where he had been waiting for D'Andelot, who mustered 
his German horse in Lorraine in the middle of September, after 
he learned of his brother's death, required the duke of Guise to 
change his plans. Passing by Etampes, which the Guises aban- 
doned at his approach,^ the prince of Conde marched toward Cor- 
beil in order to win the passage of the Seine, where 4,000 footmen 
and 2,000 horse of the enemy lay in order to keep the Marne and 
the Seine open above Paris for provisioning the capital. The 
Huguenot army numbered about 6,000 footmen; 4,000 of them 
Germans, and nearly 3,000 horsemen. Most of the Germans 
were well armed and mounted, and all "very Almain soldiers, who 
spoil all things where they go."^ 

The duke of Guise, having received word of the approach of the 
Huguenots upon Paris, abandoned his purpose of going to Havre, 

1 "II y eut toujours dans la ville quatre corps de garde, Charles IX ordonna 
d'etablir a Etampes un magasin de vivre bour fournir son armee." — Annales dii 
Gdtinais, XIX, 105. 

2 C. S. P. Eng., No. 1,070, November 20, 1562. 

172 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 173 

in order to return to the succor of the city. Great difficulty was 
experienced in accomphshing the return of the army, because it was 
the depth of winter and the days were short and the roads heavy. 
"Nevertheless everyone in camp took courage, because he was 
returning to the good French wines and no more needed to drink 
the cider of Normandy."' 

To combat the Protestant force, Guise and the constable had 
not over 6,000 footmen and 1,000 horsemen at Paris, though this 
force could be somewhat enlarged by drawing in the troops around 
Rouen and before Havre-de- Grace. It was fully expected that 
the prince of Conde would march upon the capital or else take the 
straight road to Normandy in order to unite with the English and 
with their help attempt to regain possession of Rouen and Dieppe. 
Paris was in the greatest alarm. All the people living in the fau- 
.bourgs were compelled to abandon their houses. The state of 
the royal army was bad; the soldiers were scattered and disor- 
ganized, for the spoil of Rouen had induced every kind of license 
and debauchery. Moreover, the plague was raging everywhere. 
In this exigency the duke of Guise abandoned the country round- 
about, within two or three leagues of Paris, to the pillage of the 
Protestants, withdrew his scattered forces within the walls, and 
feverishly employed every available person in the erection of for- 
tifications, principally upon the side toward Orleans, for which 
certain unfinished erections of Francis I were utilized. The city 
was so crowded with people even before the appearance of the 
troops of the prince that it seemed to be in a state of siege. If 
Conde at this time could have seized the river above and below 
the capital by which provisions were received into Paris, the city 
could have been speedily reduced to famine, as there was even at 
this time a scarcity of food.^ 

But Louis of Conde was not a man of good judgment and, while 

1 Claude Haton, I, 305. 

2 C. S. P. For., 193, December 5, 1562; ibid., Ven., December 3; Forbes II, 
27, La Noue gives a motive which led Conde to besiege Paris: "Non en 
intention de forcer la ville, mais pour faire les Parisiens, qu'll estimoit les soufflets 
de la guerre et la cuisine dont elle se nourissoit." — Mem. milit. de la None, 
chap. ix. 



174 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

personally brave, he lacked political daring. To gain time for the 
arrival of reinforcements, Catherine and the Guises wheedled him 
with empty overtures for peace and sent the marshal Brissac's bro- 
ther to the Protestant camp near Etampes to propose a plausible 
settlement, saying that the Huguenots might have what they desired 
if they would aid in expelling the Germans, and especially the Eng- 
lish. The last possibility was what the English agents in France 
had most feared, the more because of the undeniable strength of the 
Catholic crown party, which had won to itself a great number of the 
nobility, and because of the approaching winter, the lack of money 
among the Huguenots, the scarcity of food, and the weariness of the 
country. Such abandonment of the English by the prince of Conde 
could hardly have been construed as a breach of faith, seeing the 
apathy of the English participation after the seizure of Havre-de- 
Grace and Elizabeth's slowness in sending him financial assistance. 
But the prince refused to treat with an agent and continued his 
march toward Paris. On November 25 his cavalry appeared in 
sight of the city and the queen mother and the constable went out to 
parley further. The prince of Conde demanded the post of lieu- 
tenant-general of the realm; for the Huguenots the right to have 
churches in all towns except Paris and its banlieue and frontier 
towns ; the right of all gentlemen to have private worship in their 
own houses, and the retirement of the foreign troops. To these 
demands, the queen replied that no one should have her authority, 
adding that the government was already well made up of gentle- 
men, officers, and ministers, among whom the responsibilities of 
state had been divided, so that the government was capable of 
being well conducted until the King had attained his majority. 
As to toleration, she declared that to grant it would only be to 
encourage civil war.^ 

Too late Conde found that he had been trifled with^ in order 

1 Charles IX to St. Sulpice December 11, 1562; L' Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 
98; Despatch oj Barbara (Huguenot Society), December 7, 1562. 

2 Yet although the negotiations of the prince of Conde at this time were ten- 
tative and the statements of the crown not intended by it to obtain, nevertheless 
the claims advanced are to be observed, because the lines along which religious 
toleration was to develop in France and the outlines of subsequent edicts of tolera- 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 1 75 

to give the government time to bring up reinforcements^ and 
that the terms he offered had not even been considered. The 
blame for this unfortunate turn in the war must rest, not 
upon the queen mother, but upon the Guises. For the duke 
of Guise and his brother, with the constable, could not but 
fear, that in the event of peace they would be ruined, and 
the duke used his own popularity with the masses and the enmity 
felt by the Parisians toward the queen to gain his ends. When 

tion, like those of Amboise, Longjumeau, and Bergerac, are foreshadowed in the 
articles proposed now. 

Conde first proposed the following three articles; (i) liberty of conscience 
with free exercise of religion where demanded; (2) security of life and property 
unto all; (3) the summons of a free council within six months, or, if that were im- 
possible, then a general assembly of the realm. To these proposals the govern- 
ment replied that Calvinist preaching would not be permitted under any circum- 
stances in Lyons and other frontier towns, which were defined, nor near those 
with a governor and garrison, nor in those towns which were seats of the parlements. 
Conde then modified the Huguenot demands, as follows: (i) That Calvinist 
preaching be permitted in the suburbs of frontier towns, or in certain ones so 
appointed; (2) that it should obtain only in those other places where it was practiced 
before the war began; (3) except that it should be lawful for all gentlemen and all 
nobles to have private service in their own houses; (4) all persons residing in places 
where preaching was not permitted should be suffered to go to the nearest towns 
or other places for the exercise of their religion, without molestation. In reply, 
the government excepted Paris and the banlieue from these stipulations. All these 
conditions the government and Conde accepted on December 3, 1562, Lyons being 
declared not to be a frontier city within the construction of the articles. Certain 
minor stipulations followed as to amnesty, recovery of property, etc. Cf. C. S. P. 
For., No. 1,219, December 9, 1562; Beza, Hist, des eglises rejormees, II, 121 ff., 
ed. 1 841. 

I "M. de Nevers has already here from 800 to 1,000 horse. They look for 
600 foot and horsemen, Spaniards and Gascons and Piedmontese, to arrive shortly. 
All this while they had driven the prince off with talk." — C. S. P. For., 1,168, 
December i, 1562 — Smith to Throckmorton. These reinforcements reached Paris 
on the night of December 7, 1562; there were 10 ensigns of Gascons (40 or 50 in an 
ensign), in all about 500 or 600 men; of the Spaniards, 14 ensigns, "better filled," 
about 2,500-3,000, all footmen, and few armed. Their weapons were arquebuses 
and pikes, and some bills and halberds. "With them a marvellous number of 
rascals, women and baggage" (Smith to Cecil, C. S. P. For., No. 1,205, December 
7, 1562; cf. Barbaro [Huguenot Society], December 7, 1562. The Venetian 
ambassador went out to view them). These reinforcements are much exaggerated 
in the Mem. de Conde (V, 103, 104, ed. London), which rates the Gascons as 3,000 
and the Spaniards as 4,000. 



176 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

duplicity failed, then Catherine's adversaries used intimidation, 
and the Spanish ambassador at their instigation was sent to her, 
"either threatening or protesting, or promising and offering aid, 
and thus upsetting everything.'" When Paris was full of soldiers 
negotiations were broken off, the prince of Conde declaring defiantly 
that the Huguenots would sharpen their swords as they would 
have need of them. 

The only advantage the prince had gained was that he had been 
able to draw his force close in toward Paris, so that in the last 
week in November he was camped near the Pont de Charenton. 
On the 26th he planted his camp on the left bank, a mile from 
the faubourgs. If the prince of Conde had attacked Paris at once, 
instead of wasting time at Corbeil in vain pourparlers, the whole 
Huguenot cause might have triumphed, for the government would 
have been forced to yield almost everything. He might have won 
the suburbs with little loss, although in want of heavy artillery, 
and the city could not then have held out long. But now the case 
was such that he either had to fight — with small hope of winning, 
let alone of taking Paris — or else come to an accord upon his 
enemy's terms. ^ 

The prevailing opinion was that the prince would not be able 
to keep his army together for want of provisions and money, 
especially in mid-winter.^ This proved to be true. On Decem- 

I C. S. p. Ven., December 3 and 14, 1562. For an extreme example of Chan- 
tonnay's overbearing policy, see Barbaro's account of a conversation with the 
Spanish ambassador in the letter of January 25, 1563. 

2 Ibid., For., 1,183, December 3, 1562; No. 1,238, §7, December 13, 1562. 
It is fair to say, though, that Conde was almost without artillery, having but eight 
guns, so that there was no possibility of breaking the wall. The only way to take 
the city would have been by an assault with scaling-ladders (letter of Hotman in 
Rev. hist., XCVII, March- April, 1908, 311). 

3 Claude Haton, I, 307; C. S. P. Ven., No. 314, December 11, 1562. See 
Throckmorton's earnest plea in C. S. P. For., 1,195, December 6, 1562, for sending 
financial assistance to him. The English intervention in Normandy was demon- 
strated to be a safe and profitable venture; besides other advantages which they 
might draw from Rouen, Havre, and Dieppe (which could safely be recovered) 
the archbishopric of Rouen was worth 50,000 francs; the two abbeys inside the town 
10,000; the abbey of Fecamp 40,000 francs; the benefices within the town valuable; 
the gabelle in salt and other royal rights in Rouen and Dieppe worth 50,000 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 177 

ber 9 he broke camp and marched off crestfallen, toward Nor- 
mandy, after burning the camp, to effect a juncture with the Eng- 
lish.^ By this time he had barely 7,000 men, the time of the year 
telling hard upon the army, for it was compelled to live in the open, 
while his adversaries had 15,000 or 16,000 men of all nations, 
one-quarter of whom were mounted. The difficulty of his position 
was the greater because he was on the left bank of the Seine, with 
no prospect of passing the river, for the duke of Guise lay at Poissy,^ 
while the Rhinegrave and Villebonne were guarding Pont de 1' Arche 
lower down. Warwick was unwilhng to venture forth from 
Havre to the prince's assistance, but hoped, by stopping the ship- 
ment of salt and other merchandise up the Seine, to be able to 
compel the towns of Normandy, as Honfleur, Harfleur, Caudebec, 
and Rouen, for necessity's sake to come to terms.^ Being unable 
to pass the Seine, Conde drew off toward Chartres, followed at 
the distance of about five leagues by the duke of Guise and the 
constable, and came to a halt near Montfort not far from Evreux, 
while Guise lay at a point about ten leagues west of St. Denis, 
from whence, including Paris, he drew his supplies.^ All around 
the two armies the country was destroyed. 

crowns, which would double when the English merchants came, so that the military 
occupation of Normandy would cost less than the profits therefrom. But arguments 
were in vain to persuade Elizabeth's double policy of caution and parsimony. Sir 
Nicholas drove Smith's warning of December 7 home by another one to Elizabeth, 
urging her "to deal substantially" with Conde, "for wanting the queen's force of men 
it is not likely he will be strong enough to accomplish his intents." 

1 Too late the English government was alive to the danger of its losing 
all, owing to the narrow policy hitherto pursued, and Cecil hurried Richard Worseley, 
captain of the Isle of Wight, off to Portsmouth on December 7 to secure 5,000 
pounds, as earnest of more money to be sent into France in aid of the Huguenots, 
whence he was to hasten to Havre, warn the earl of Warwick not to give credit to 
any reports of peace unless so informed by Throckmorton or Smith, and see that 
the town was speedily fortified and guarded (C. 5. P. For., No. 1,033, December 
7, 1562; Forbes, H, 124, 125). 

2 Claude Haton, I, 307; C. S. P. For., No. 1,240, December 13, 1562. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 1,238, December 13, 1562. On December 14, 1562, 
Conde wrote anxiously from his camp at St. Arneuil asking for succor, especially 
that Montgomery, who had gone to England for assistance, might be sent to him. 
(See Appendix V.) Montgomery was in Portsmouth with Sir Hugh Poulet, who 
was commissioned to bring over the balance of 15,000 pounds to Havre (C S. P. 
For., No. 1,270, December 16, 1562). 

4 Ibid., No. 1,276, December 18, 1562; No. 1,278, December 19, 1562. 



178 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



The prince's inability to secure provisions, combined with the 
failure of English support, finally compelled him to give battle 
to the duke of Guise near Dreuxon December 19, the engagement 
being precipitated by his attempt to force the passage of the Eure, 
although the odds were against him in every particular, for the 
duke of Guise was posted at a point so chosen that he could fall 
back on Dreux if compelled to do so; his flank was protected by 
a stream and a wood ; and his artillery was more numerous than 




BATTLE OF DREUX, DECEMBER ig, 1562 
(Bib. Nat., Estampes, 'Histoire de France, Q. b) 



that of Conde.' The advance guard of the Huguenots was com- 
manded by the admiral; the "battle," in which were the German 
reiters, by D'Andelot; the rear guard by the prince of Conde 
himself. The Huguenot ministers and preachers, armed and 
mounted, moved about among the men, who sang their psalms 
in such a loud voice that the camp of the King could easily hear 
them. On the Cathohc side the marshal St. Andre was pitted 

I Guise had 22 cannon; Conde's artillery consisted of 4 field-pieces, 2 cannon, 
and a culverin, which "never shot a shot" (Throckmorton to the Queen, C. S. P. 
For., January 3, 1563. He was an eye-witness of the battle. Forbes, II, 251). 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 179 

against D'Andelot; the constable Montmorency commanded the 
rear guard, with instructions to hold off until the Huguenot rear 
guard entered the fight; while the duke of Guise himself com- 
manded the advance guard against the admiral.^ 

The battle was begun about noon by a victorious charge of the 
Huguenot horse, headed by Conde and Coligny, which drove back 
the Catholic Swiss and resulted in the capture of six pieces of 
cannon and the constable Montmorency who was slightly wounded 
in the mouth. His captors "sent him to Orleans with such speed, 
that he drank but once by the way and that on horseback."^ The 
second charge was less effective owing chiefly to the slowness of 
the prince's German reiters who had to have their orders inter- 
preted to them, and partly to the effective artillery fire of the enemy, 
and culminated in the capture of Conde, whose horse was shot 
under him. Too late to save the prince of Conde the admiral 
made a partial rally of the French and German cavalry, in the 
course of whose attack the marshal St. Andre was killed.^ Even 
then the issue might have been different if the Huguenot footmen 
had not behaved like cowards.^ The Protestant loss included 
about 800 of the noblesse, and nearly 6,000 footmen and reiters 
according to those who buried the dead.^ The Catholic loss was 
about 2,000, the most conspicuous among the fallen being the 
marshal St. Andre and Montbrun, the youngest son of the con- 
stable Montmorency.^ 

1 Claude Haton, I, 308, 309. Cf. note for other references. 

2 C. S. P. Eng., No. 228, 229, January 3, 1562; the admiral to Montgomery 
(Delaborde, Gaspard de Coligny, II, 180), December 28, 1562, from the camp 
at Avarot; cf. C. S. P. Eng., No. 181, January 2, 1563 — the admiral to Queen 
Elizabeth; Forbes, II, 247. 

3 De Thou, Book XXXIV, and Le Laboureur's additions to Castelnau, II, 81. 

4 "They did not strike a stroke" and "were defeated in running away." — 
C. S. P. For., January 3, 1563; Forbes, II, 251. 

s Claude Haton, I, 311. 

^ For contemporary accounts of the battle of Dreux, see: "Discours de la 
bataille," in Mem. du due de Guise, ed. Michaud; 497 ff.; Beza, Histoire des eglises 
reformees, I, 605 ff.; D'Aubigne, Book III, chaps, xiii, xiv; Tavannes, 392 ff.; 
La Noue, Mem. milit., chap, x; De Thou, Book XXXIV; C. S. P. Eng., No. 1,282, 
abstract of a printed pamphlet; No. 1,316, December 21; No. 1,323, December 



l8o THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The battle of Dreux was fought on the day of the feast of St. 
Thomas — almost the shortest day of the year — and the Huguenots 
had to thank the oncoming of darkness for saving them from 
pursuit. Under its cover CoHgny drew off toward Auneau where 
he pitched camp, but some of the Huguenot horse galloped all 
night toward Orleans. Fortunate was the Calvinist who could 
find a cross to put upon his clothing on the morrow.^ Twenty- 
two standards of the prince of Conde were found upon the ground, 
which were sent to the King and hung in the cathedral of Notre 
Dame. Almost all Conde's German footmen were taken prisoners, 
about 2,000, three-quarters of whom were sent back to Germany 
on parole, without weapons, and bearing white rods in witness 
of their abdication; the rest entered the service of the King and 
were joined with the Rhinegrave's forces under command of Bas- 
sompierre, an Alsatian in the service of Charles IX. ^ 

The battle of Dreux, while not a complete rout of the Hugue- 
nots, was no less a disaster, because it foiled the efforts of Coligny 
to effect a junction with the English in Havre and compelled him 

22, 1562 — letter of the admral to the earl of Warwick; to Queen Elizabeth, Dela- 
borde, II, 178, 179. For details as to the number of prisoners, etc., see C. S. P. 
For., Nos. 1,286-88, 1,316, 1,317, 1,335, §§4-6; 1,334, i,353. §6; 1,563. Nos. 12, 
22, 28, narrative of Spanish troops. Excellent accounts of the battle are to be 
consulted in De Ruble, Antoine de Bourbon et Jeanne d'Albret, II, 366 fit.; 
Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, 140-45; and the duke of Aumale's History of 
the Princes of Conde (Eng. trans.), I, 150-68. The standard treatment of the sub- 
ject is Coynart, L'Annee 1^62 et la bataille de Dreux: etude historique et mili- 
taire; extraits divers, correspondance officielles du temps (1894). 

Montaigne has an interesting essay upon some peculiar incidents of the battle. 
Two curious occurrences happened. The duke of Guise was the first to alight 
from his horse and courteously receive the prince of Conde (C. 5. P. For., No. 
1,326, December 26, 1562); the two slept in the same bed that night {ibid., Few., 
December 21, 1,562). The duke of Aumale was unhorsed and nearly the whole 
army rode and trampled over him, yet he was unhurt, owing to the heavy suit of 
armor he wore (ibid., For., No. 375, §3, 1563; cf. No. 400, §2). 

1 The Parlement ordered the bishops of France to declare that in all parishes 
those who knew who were Huguenots should denounce them within nine days to 
their priests under pain of excommunication. This practice led to a large exodus 
of the Huguenots in many of the towns (Claude Haton, I, 312, 316, 317, and 
note^ 318). 

2 The German form of the name was Bessenstein. 



CAMPAIGN OF BREUX 

NOV- DEC. 1562 

Scale of Miles 




FretevaJ 
o 

&ucques^ 
*Vcnd6mc 



Methue/1 &Co. 




BATTLE ofDREUX 

according to 
COMMANDANT de COYNART 



iChatzau 



Methuen & Co. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR l8l 

to fall back on Orleans. Even Spain breathed easier, for anxiety 
lest the English get Calais was dispelled.^ Moreover, the French 
Protestants were in need of money, both Coligny's and D'Andelot's 
troops being in arrears of pay, the latter's reiters having gone three 
months without wages. ^ On the other hand the government was 
in better financial condition through the efforts of the cardinal 
of Lorraine, who collected some money at the Council of Trent^ 
in order to continue the war, and the active efficiency of the Spanish 
ambassador and the papal legate, who were excellent coworkers.^ 
Yet, in spite of defeat, Coligny was resolved to continue the fight, 
though uncertain what policy to follow. At first he was inchned 
to go into Dauphine and join forces with Des Adresse against the 
duke of Nemours, 5 but the prospect of Catholic relief from Ger- 
many in the early spring made it advisable to abandon this plan. 
The military situation was much as follows in mid- January, 
1563: the Huguenot center was at Orleans, where D'Andelot lay, 
in control of the middle line of the Loire above Blois and as far 
northward as Chateaudun and the vicinity of Chartres;^ CoHgny 
lay at Villefranche (January 12) ; Montgomery was in Dieppe and 
the English in Havre. But communication between the Protes- 
tant coreHgionists was prevented by the way in which the Cathohc 
troops were disposed, Etampes, which the duke of Guise recov- 
ered in January, restored the necessary connecting link between 
Blois and Paris, and the whole line of the Seine was in the hands 
of the Catholics; Warwick was being besieged in Havre by 
Vieilleville (he had succeeded the Marshal St. Andre and was 
also governor of Normandy), who lay at Caudebec.'^' The marshal 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 14, §2, January 3, 1563. 

2 Ibid., No. 16, §2, January 3, 1563, and No. 32 — D'Andelot to Elizabeth from 
Orleans, January 5, 1563; cf. Forbes, II, 263. 

3 Sarpi, Histoire dii Concile de Trent, Book VII, chap, xlviii. 
4C. S. P. For., No. 15, §1, January 3, 1563. 

5 Ibid., Eng. For., No. 35, January 6, 1563; Forbes, II, 270; No. 54, §2, 
Januar)' 7; No. 69, §1, January 11, 1563. 

^ La Mothe Fenelon to St. Sulpice, December 17, 1562; L'Ambassade de 
St. Sulpice, 103, 104. 

7 C. S. P. Ven., December 27, 1562. 



i82 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Brissac was at Rouen with seventeen ensigns. The marshal 
Bourdillon who had been given the baton of the late marshal 
Termes was in Piedmont. Paris of course was in the government's 
hands. In Berry where the upper waters of the Loire and the 
Seine flow close together the lines of the two hostile parties came 
in contact. The admiral in the second week in January, 1563, 
passed the Loire at Beaugency and distributed his men at St. 
Aignan, Celles, and Montrichard, which lay on the right bank 
of the stream.' At the same time Guise had been minded to cross 
the river the other way and attack Orleans. This move on the 
part of each commander brought about a collision of forces near 
Clery, in which Guise was repulsed. The condition of the coun- 
try at the time was terrible, especially for the duke, whose troopers 
were so pressed that they had to forage twelve leagues from camp.^ 
Everywhere the reiters were held in terror, for these raiders fre- 
quently made long and rapid marches and fell suddenly upon 
places, carrying death and destruction with them. 

In the meanwhile, the constable had been kept in light captivity 
at Orleans,^ a treatment in contrast with that experienced by 
Conde, who was first kept under strong guard by Damville in 
the httle abbey of St. Pierre at Chartres, both the windows and 
the street being barred, and later, on January 24, 1563, brought 
to Paris.4 Ever since Dreux, the queen mother and the constable 
had been constantly employed in the endeavor to make a settle- 

^ Randolph wrote to Cecil on January 5, 1563: "We thought ourselves happy 
till we heard of the prince's taking, but despair not as longe as the admiral 
kepethe the feeldes." — C. S. P. Scot., I, 1,160. 

2 Ihid., For., No. 83, January 13, 1563; No. 84, §3, same date; No. 109, §6, 
January 17; No 137, §5, January 23, 1563. 

3 Ihid., No. 83, §3, January 13, 1563. 

4 "Coll. d'un ancien amateur," Hotel Drouot, February 10, 1877, No. 34: 
Eleanor de Roye to Catherine de Medici from Orleans, December 22, 1562, asking 
that pity be taken upon the prince of Conde; C. S. P. For., No. 35, January 6, 1563; 
Forbes, II, 270; No. 146, §3: "This night (January 24) Conde was brought into 
this town with a strong guard. He came on horseback, and was brought through 
the town in a coach covered with black velvet, by torch-light, and the windows of 
the coach open; but the torch was so carried that none could see him." The gov- 
ernment had good reason to fear an attempt would be made to rescue him while he 
was at Chartres. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 183 

ment.' In the case of the constable, self-interest was the chief 
motive : he chafed under confinement and was envious of the duke 
of Guise. ^ On the other hand, Catherine's anxiety was of a poli- 
tical nature. She was fearful lest England permanently acquire 
Havre-de- Grace. Her purpose was to make peace with the Hugue- 
nots and then unite the parties in a war for the recovery of Havre.^ 
But the mistrust of the Huguenots that the overtures of peace 
were meant to be an accord in appearance only; the ambition of 
the Guises who saw their power thrive in the struggle; the oppo- 
sition of Paris, and perhaps above all, the opposition of vSpain, 
were difficulties in the way.'^ PhiHp II's joy over Dreux was 
tempered by his anxiety, and he secretly aimed to thwart any 
terms of peace at all favorable to the Protestants, s Catherine 
probably would have preferred to abide by anything rather than 
have the Guises gain greater profit.*^ The queen mother urged 

' "A ce soir bien tard j'ay receu la lettre qu'il vous a pleu m'escripre par la 
poste et vous puis asseurer Madame qu'il y a deux jours que Madame la Princesse 
et mon nepveu Dandelot veuUent vous envoyer la response et advis de mon nepveu 
monsieur I'admiral et de toute leur compaigne. Mais je les en ay engarder sur la 
tente qu'auyons au retour du Plessis qui devoit estre samedy au matin pour estre 
rendu certain de vostre volonte, a quoy les voys tous fort affectionnes pour 
faire una bonne paix," etc., etc. — Montmorency to Catherine de Medicis, Orleans, 
12 Janvier 1563 (Fillon Collection, No. 2652). 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 35, §2, January 6, 1563; Forbes, II, 270. 

3 Catherine expressed this determination as far back as October 20 in a letter 
ioSt.SnX^ice {UAmhassade de St. Sulpice,^-]; C. S. P. For., No. 37, January 6, 
1563)- 

4 C. S. P. Ven., February 2, 1563. 

5 Cf. L'Ambassade St. Sulpice, 93, 108, 114, 116, and Corresp. de Cath. 
de Med., I, 508, 548. This was the real mission of Don Fernando de Toledo, a 
bastard son of the duke of Alva and grand prior of the order of St. John in Castile, 
who was sent to France to congratulate Charles IX on the victory of Dreux (cf. 
C. S. P. For., No. 187, January 29, 1563, from Madrid; No. 190, January 30, from 
Madrid; No. 234, February 3, from Madrid). St. Sulpice this early surmised that 
Alva, at any rate, though he did not yet so suspect the political designs of Philip II, 
desired the continuation of civil war in France in order that Spain might profitby 
her distress, and so wrote to Catherine de Medicis. — L'ambassade de St. Sulpice, 93, 
November 12, 1562. In consequence of this attitude, religious and political, the 
arguments of France fell upon deaf ears (see ibid., 122, and note). 

6 Cf . C. S. P. For., No. 35, §2, January 6, 1563; No. 109, § 4, January 17; 
No. 182, §9, January 28; Forbes, II, 270, 287. 



l84 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the necessity of peace on account of lack of funds to carry on the 
war.^ But her arguments were cast to the winds by the triumphant 
Guises when money began to pour into France from Spain, Venice, 
the duke of Tuscany, and from some of the CathoHc German 
princes. ^^ 

On the other hand, the penury of the Protestants increased 
from day to day. CoHgny was in daily fear lest the reiters would 
desert him on account of the delay in paying them.^ In vain he 
wrote to Elizabeth, urging the speedy remittance of money. The 
cautious procrastination and niggardly policy of EHzabeth in the 
end was fatal to his purpose. In vain her ambassador in France, 
the faithful Throckmorton, urged imrnediate and liberal action. 
Warwick also added his plea, informing the home government 
and the queen that the admiral would be "ruined and unable to 
hold up his head without her aid in men and money. ""^ Eliza- 
beth's notorious parsimony led her to deceive the French Protes- 

^ C. S. p. Ven., February 6, 1563. 

2 Ibid., For., No. 234, February 3, 1563, from Madrid. No. 194, January 30, 
1563. The money was used to purchase the services of 3,000 reiters and some 
new levies of Swiss. Pending their arrival, Charles IX called out the arriere-ban — 
cavalry of the nobility obliged to serve upon call — to prosecute the war (C. 5. P. 
Ven., February 17, 1563). See the interesting account of the interception of 13,000 
ecus d'or probably by the Huguenots, though it may have been by robbers, sent 
from Flanders in February, 1563 (Paillard, "De tournement au profit des Hugue- 
nots d'un subside envoye par Philippe II a Catherine de Medicis," Rev. hist., 
II, 490). 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 145, January 24, 1563; Forbes, II, 300. 

4 Ibid., Eng. For., No. 289, February 12, 1562. "If the admiral," wrote the 
earl, "should, for want of present aid, be discomfited and driven to make composi- 
tion, they may reckon not only upon the whole power of France being bent against 
this place (Harfleur), but that the same will, with the assistance of Spain and Scot- 
land and their confederates, be also undoubtedly extended against England. But if 
he be now aided with 10,000 men and 200,000 crowns, further inconvenience will 
be stayed and may serve a better purpose than the employment at another time of 
a far greater number at larger charges. It would be better for the queen to convert 
a good part of her plate into coin than slack her aid." — Ibid., Eng., No. 290, 
February 12, 1563; add Nos. 285, 287. Warwick in seconding Coligny's appeal 
(ibid.. For., No. 294, February 12, 1563) urged haste in the matter of the money, 
as "if it is not sent in time it will be the ruin of the cause through mutiny of the 
reiters, who may even kill the admiral;" moreover, as the admiral's forces were all 
cavalry, English infantry was wanted. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 185 

lants with vague promises, a policy so short-sighted that it ulti- 
mately lost England the support of the Huguenots and compelled 
the evacuation of Havre-de- Grace, which otherwise they might 
have made another Calais. By February the admiral's patience 
was well-nigh exhausted, and his troops in mutiny, the reiters raid- 
ing the country to such an extent that the court and the foreign 
ambassadors were compelled to retire from Chartres to Blois, not 
daring to try to go to Paris. As his position became more des- 
perate from want of funds, Cohgny determined to strike northward, 
if possible to effect a juncture with the EngHsh on the coast of 
Normandy, and so while his agents parleyed for peace in order 
to gain time and deceive the enemy, the admiral, leaving his wagons 
and baggage behind him in order that his reiters might ride unim- 
peded, stole away from Jargau on the night of February i with 
2,000 reiters, 1,000 mounted arquebusiers, and 500 gentry. His 
purpose was to join Warwick, but when he reached Dreux, where 
the battle had been fought six weeks earher, he discovered that 
it was impossible for him to cross the Seine, and hence, after send- 
ing word to the earl that he was in hard straits for money to pay 
his men and had "much ado to keep them together," he drew off 
toward Caen.' 

While Coligny lay at Dives, Throckmorton — it must have been 
against his own convictions — was sent to confer with him, inform- 
ing him that if the admiral counted that the payment of his army 
and the support of the war depended upon EHzabeth alone, he was 
to understand that the people of England would not wilHngly con- 
tribute to such an expense, since the war was of little profit to them. 
Therefore Elizabeth advised the Huguenots not to refuse reason- 
able conditions of peace, the EngHsh queen including in the sphere 
of "reasonable conditions" Huguenot insistence that Calais be 
restored to England.^ 

In the meantime, while Coligny's position was growing worse 

1 C. S. P. For., Nos. 265, 276, 280, 282, 289, February, 1563. 

2 Ihid., Eng., No. 291. Throckmorton's report of his conference with Admiral 
Coligny, February 12, 1563. It is astonishing, after this display of selfishness 
and greed, that Coligny should still have retained patience with, and faith in, 
Elizabeth. 



1 86 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

and worse, the position of D'Andelot in Orleans had also become 
serious. The duke of Guise invested the city on February 4, and 
got possession of Portereau (February 6), a faubourg of Orleans 
across the river, which had been fortified during the previous 
summer. But the Huguenots still held the town at their end of 
the bridge and broke several of the arches down. A tiny island 
lay in the stream and this the duke planned to reach by filling 
thousands of sacks with sand and gravel and throwing them into 
the river between the banks at Portereau and the island from 
whence he would be more able to attack Orleans with cannon,^ 
But it being winter time, the river was too deep and the current 
too strong. Failing this, he planned to cut the river above Orleans 
in order to let the water into the meadow lands. ^ The spirited 
siege lasted many days. Every kind of metal was impressed into 
service by those of Orleans, including shells made of brass, "which 
was a new device and very terrible," and their ammunition seemed 
likely to outlast that of their enemy. The Catholic position around 
Orleans was by no means an enviable one. Food, money, and 
ammunition were lacking. All Guise's men-at-arms and Hght 
horsemen Hved at discretion — that is, they quartered themselves 
on the surrounding villages and forced the poor people of the 
country to feed them and their horses. The court was doing the 
same at Blois to the "marvellous destruction" of the country. 
The lack of powder bade fair to be fatal to the duke's success, for 
the government's powder factories at Chartres, Chateaudun, and 
Paris were all blown up, accidentally or otherwise, about this time, 
that of Paris having occurred on January 28, 1563, with great 
destruction of property and some lives.^ Inconsequence of these 

1 The duke was short of heavy guns and had to send to Paris for them to come 
to Corbeil by water, from thence to Montargis, and so after by land to the river. 
The defenders had improvised a mill on the island into a fortress but after the ar- 
rival of the heavy guns, so hot a fire was poured upon them that they were compelled 
to retire across the bridge, "leaving many to the mercy of the fish" (Claude Haton, 
I. 319)- 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 323, February 17, 1653. Both D'Aubigne, Book III, 
chap, xvi, and La Noue, Mem. milit., chap, x, have vivid accounts of this siege; 
cf, also De Thou, Book XXXIV. 

3 Barbaro gives details of the havoc wrought by this explosion (C S. P. Ven., 
January 28, 1563); cf. C. S. P. For., No. 239, §3, No. 323, § 18, February 17, 1563. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 187 

disasters, the Catholic artillery had to send all the way to Flanders 
for gunpowder. Although some breaches were made in the wall 
by the Catholics, the duke of Guise delayed final assault, for two 
reasons: first, because the queen mother hoped to take the city 
by composition, secondly, because Catholic reinforcements were 
looked for late in March out of Germany, Switzerland, and Gas- 
cony, to the number of ten thousand. 

No such silver lining lightened the cloud on the Huguenot hori- 
zon. D'Andelot from Orleans, the princess of Conde, Eleanor 
de Roye, from Strasburg, her imprisoned husband, and Coligny 
all implored the Enghsh queen in vain for speedy rehef. The 
admiral's position by the end of February was desperate. He had 
been compelled to move into the western part of Normandy, for 
his 5,000 reiters were "in such rage for their money that he could 
scarce keep them together," and were being so corrupted by the 
enemy that he might otherwise have lost them utterly.' Powder 
also was wanting.^ The condition of Montgomery^ in Dieppe 
and of Warwick in Havre was quite as bad. In Ha\Te food was 
so scarce that rations were reduced to a two-penny loaf to four 
persons; wood was unprocurable; the water was bad. 4 The 
spoihng of Normandy from the devastation of Cohgny's reiters 
who were levying upon the country without law or order, and 
burning and destroying villages without regard to reHgion, was 

^ Throckmorton wrote to Cecil on February 21: "He is to be pitied, for 
every hour he is in danger of his life and of being betrayed by his reiters." — C. S. P. 
For., No. 333, §§i, 5, 9, February 20, 1563; No. 339, February 21, 1562. 

2 Ihid., No. 374, March i, 1563; Forbes, II, 332. 

3 Montgomery to the Rhinegrave, Dieppe, 8 fevrier, 1563: "Les habitans du 
plat pays m'ont faict entendre qu'ils seroient prestz de se joindre a moy si je me 
vouloys metre en campagne pour les deffendre des oppressions, pilleries et saca- 

gementz qu'ilz disent estre exerces par ceux qui vous suivent Monsieur 

I'admiral [Coligny] n'est [pas] au pays [I'Orleannais] que me mandez, ou a tout 
le moings qu'il a faict une extreme diligence et est plus pres de nous qu'on ne 
cuyde, en delliberation de metre bientost une fin a ces troubles, pour nous faire tous 
jouyr du rang que nous debrons tenir prez la personne du Roi comme ses vrays 
subjets et loyaulx serviteurs." — Fillon Collection. 

4 C. 5. P. For., No. 352, Warwick to the council, February 25, 1563; cf. 
Forbes, II, 336; C. 5. P. Eng. For., No. 327, §3, February 18, 1563; Forbes, II, 
334, 380, March i, 1563; cf. Nos. 333, 344. 



1 88 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

terrible. "If the reiters understand that another messenger has 
arrived here (Caen) from the queen and the money not come," 
■wrote the admiral, "it will be impossibble to save our throats from 
being cut." Fortunately the very next day the EngHsh ambassa- 
dor arrived in Caen with word for Coligny to the effect that eight 
thousand pounds in EngHsh sovereigns, French crowns, angels, 
and pistolets were on the way from Portsmouth to Caen.^ Fire 
opened on Caen castle on March i, and the next day the marquis 
D'Elboeuf surrendered it. Bayeux also capitulated.^ The fall 
of these two places and the fearful state of the country,^ might 
have broken the resolution of the crown to continue the war.'* But 
another fate intervened. 

Henry of Guise was mortally wounded on the night of February 
i8, 1563, by a Huguenot assassin named Poltrot^ and died on 

^ The money reached Havre on February 25 and was brought by Beauvoir, 
Briquemault, and Throckmorton under guard of eight pieces of artillery to Caen 
at once (Delaborde, II, 226, 227). The reiters received their pay at once. For 
some curious information about the avarice of the reiters and the pay given them, 
see Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 129, note; VII, 407. 

2 C. S. P.- For., 391; Forbes, II, 346. 

3 Catherine wrote with truth: "Ce royaume est reduit en telle extremite que 
la necessite veut que Ton ne perde I'occasion de faire pacifier, principalement pour 
Jeter hors les etrangers, memement les Anglais." — L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 

lOI. 

4 "La guerre," said Catherine with words of simple dignity, which were re- 
peated in the instructions of the special envoys sent to notify the court of Vienna 
and Madrid, the Vatican and the Council of Trent, "a tellement appauvri le roy- 
aume qu'il est reduit a un etat digne de commiseration. La voie des armes etait 
impossible; le remede propre a un tel mal; I'experience a demontre, c'est un libre et 
general concile." — Corresp. de Cath. de Med., II, Introd., v. Philip II, reproached 
the regent of Parma for not lending assistance to France. See her letter justifying 
her conduct in Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II siir les Pays-Bas, I, 266, 
August 12, 1563. 

5 The marshal Brissac succeeded to the command (L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 
120). For the influence of the death of the duke of Guise in France, see For- 
neron. Hist, des dues de Guise, II, 80; upon Flanders, Papiers d'etat du cardinal 
de Granvelle, VII, 52, 61, 65; Gachard, Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, I, 245. For 
interesting details see D'Aubigne, Book III, chap, xx; Mem. de Conde, IV, 243; 
C. S. P. For., No. 332, February 20, 1563; No. 354, §§2-5, February 26, 1562, both 
from Smith to Queen Elizabeth, written from Blois. Cf. Forbes, II, 159; 361, 
§§i-8, 17, February 26, 424, §10 March 8, 1563; C. S. P. Ven., letters of February 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 



189 



Ash Wednesday following, February 24. The death of the duke 
of Guise was a heavy blow to the Cathohcs. His following, because 
of his personal magnetism, was greater than that of any other 
Catholic leader, for many noblemen and gentlemen adhered to 
the Catholic cause more for love of him than for loyalty to the 
established religion. Moreover, he was an able general uniting 
quickness of intelligence, determination, experience, popularity, 
and physical endurance in his talented person. Immediately after 




ASSASSINATION OF THE DUKE OF GUISE, FEBRUARY i8, 1563 
(Tortorel and Perissin) 



Guise was hurt, the queen mother went to the camp with the 
desire to see the constable. The prince of Conde and the con- 

23, 27, and March 2, 23, 1563. It is said the duke received warning from Montluc 
and Madame de St. Andre, but that the word arrived too late. The news of his 
death was kept from Mary Stuart for some time. See C. S. P. Scotland, VI, No. 
1,173, March 10, 1563; VIII, No. 17, March 18, 1563; No. 30, April i, 1563; No. 
31, April 10, 1563. On the political theory of assassination, see Weill, 69. 

Poltrot was put to death on March 18; for the trial, see Mem.-journ. de Frangois, 
de Lorraine (Michaud Coll.), 506, 537 ff.; Paulin Paris, Cabinet hist., lere part., 
Ill, 49 ff. A conspicuous instance of the high-mindedness of Jeanne d'Albret is 
the letter of consolation she wrote to the duchess of Guise after the assassination 
of the duke (I>a Ferriere, Rapport, 39). 



190 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



stable were obviously the men of the hour, and as they could not 
conduct negotiations while they were prisoners, they were both 
liberated on March 8, and held a conference together on that day.^ 
On March 19 the King, with the assent of his council, formally 
decreed rehgious toleration and appointed the prince of Cond^ 
lieutenant-general of the realm with exemption for seizure of any 
of the royal revenues by him during the troubles.^ It was high 
time for peace to be made, for the revolt of the provinces was 




INTERVIEW ON THE ILE-AUX-B(EUFS 
(Bib. Nat., Estampes, Hisioire de France, Q. b) 

increasing. In La Rochelle, Poitou, Guyenne, and Picardy the 
" Howegenosys " had again rebelled in February, and the lieuten- 
ants of these provinces sent to Blois for aid.^ 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 422, March 8, 1562; Forbes, II, 350, 354, 356; C. S. P. 
For., No. 437, March 12, 1563; ibid., No. 424, §§25-27; No. 435, March 11, 1562, 
Conde to Smith. 

2 Ihid., No. 473; 481, March 20, the Rhinegrave to Warwick on the basis 
of a letter of the queen mother (Beza, II, 17, ed. 1841). 

3 C. S. P. For., Nos. 395, §2, March 3, 1563; 419, §5, March 7; 424, §§3, 4; 
Forbes, II. "La retarder d'un jour," said De Losses in one of the sessions of the 
King's council, "c'etait exposer la ville de Paris au sac et au pillage, laisser le roi 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 1 91 

The terms of Amboise are interesting because they mark the 
triumph of the aristocratic element in the Huguenot party, whose 
interests were identified with their poHtical purposes and their 
feudal position, over the "Geneva party," who were austere Cal- 
vinists, and who had an eye single to religion only.' D'Andelot, 
and to a less degree the admiral, were representatives of this latter 
group. ^ The terms of peace provided that the prince of Conde 
was to succeed to the place of the late king of Navarre; that the 
Huguenot army was to be paid by the government; that in all 
towns where the Reformed rehgion prevailed, save Paris, it was 
to be protected; that in every bailiwick the King was to appoint 
one town where the gospel might be preached; that all gentlemen 
holding fiefs in low or mean justice might have preaching in their 
houses for the benefit of their families; that all nobles enjoying 
high justice might have preaching on their estates; that property 
confiscated from either church was to be restored.^ Paris firmly 
refused at first to tolerate any terms of peace,4 its Catholic pre- 
judices being aggravated by desire to revenge the murder of the 
duke of Guise; but the King replied to the demur of the Parlement 

et la reine a la merci des protestants encore aux armes." M. Gonnor, later the mar- 
shal Matignon, dwelt upon the miserable state of the country and concluded: "Je 
parle sans passion. Je ne suis pas huguenot et je suppHe la cour de ne pas differer 
1' enregistrement de I'edit." — Corresp. de Cath de Med., II, Introd., iii. 

1 "Traite politique par lequel en quelque sorte la gentilhommerie provinciale 
s'isolait du puritanisme de Geneve." — Capefigue, 260. 

2 "C'est trop grand pitie que de limiter ainssy certains lieux pour servir a 
Dieu, comma s'il ne vouloit estre en tous endroicts." — Fillon Collection, 2,657, the 
admiral to the landgrave from Caen, March 16, 1563. 

3 "Edict et declaration faite par le roy Charles IX sur la pacification des 
troubles de ce Royaume: le 19 mars 1563," Par., Roh. Estienne, 1563; Isambert, 
XIV, 135. The various pieces showing the evolution of the edict are to be found 
in Mem. de Conde, IV, 305, 333, 356, 498, 504. Cf. C. S. P. For., Nos. 428, 430, 
431 (March 10, 1563). 

Biron was sent into Provence in 1563 with instructions to give an account to the 
King of the manner in which justice was administered there and how the edict was 
executed. He was also to find the count of Tendes and Sommerive and express the 
King's displeasure of their conduct. The royal instructions are evidence of the 
sincerity with which the government started to execute the edict (La Ferriere, 
Rapport, 46; cf. Collection Tremont, ser. 3, p. 124). 

4 C. S. P. For., No. 424, §16; No. 590, April 8, 1563; Forbes, II, 379. 



192 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

that the city must make up its mind to accept the conditions.'^ 
On the other hand, Lyons as obstinately refused to receive the 
mass, so that the country round about it remained turbulent well 
into the autumn.- Rouen, Dijon, Toulouse, encouraged by the 
opposition of the Parlement, refused to recognize the edict. ^ The 
roads were filled with robbers, and the continued presence of the 
reiters, to whom an enormous sum in wages was due, was a per- 
petual menace. 

The Germans who had been in the service of the King and 
those of the prince of Conde fraternized on the road home. They 
made a great troop to the number of 10,000 or 12,000, taking the 
road from Orleans by way of Pluvieres and Etampes to Paris, and 
arrived there in Easter week, where they staid for five weeks at 
least. When they left they were an entire day crossing the bridge 
over the Seine, because of the enormous amount of baggage which 
they had. After having crossed the Seine, the reiters divided into 
two bands for better Hving, one of them skirting the right bank 
of the Seine, the other crossing Brie to the Marne, in order to find 
better provisions for themselves and their horses. These latter 
traversed Champagne to the River Aube and encamped at Mon- 
tier-en-Der near Vassy for six entire weeks, marauding the country 

1 C. S. p. Ven., March 23, 1563. "Response faicte par le Roy (Charles IX) 
et son Conseil, aux Presidens et Conseillers de sa Cour de Parlement de Paris: 
Sur la remonstrance faicte a sa dicte maieste, concernant la declaration de sa 
Maiorite, et ordonnance faicte pour le bien, et repos publique de son Royaume " 
(Lyons, Rigaud, 1563). 

In the first week of May the King summoned the members of the Parlement 
of Paris and the authorities of the city to St. Germain, commanding them before 
the week was out to obey the Edict of Toleration, to release those imprisoned for 
religion, and to lay down their arms (C. 5. P. For., No. 703, §3, May 4, 1563). 
Paris finally published the edict, but observed it slightly, the Parlement admitting 
the "graces" of the edict, but saying it could not in its conscience allow two religions 
(ibid., No. 1 190, 835, June 2, 1563). For an example of the violence of the 
capital see No. 895, June 15, 1562. The public criers and the very horses which 
they used in the crying of the edict in the city of Paris were in danger of being killed 
by the populace, which poured out of the mouths of the streets (Claude Haton, I, 
328). 

2 "Le peuple y est fort sedicieux." — Fourquevaux to St. Sulpice, October 13, 
1563, U Ambassade de St. Sid pice, 165. 

3 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., iv. 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 193 

for five or six leagues about. Their depredations drove the peas- 
antry to such despair that protective associations composed of 
the peasantry and nobles were formed to resist their aggressions, 
and these fell upon stragglers whenever they found a little group 
of them, and cut their throats. Gradually, however, these despoil- 
ers were drawn off out of the land, being accompanied to the fron- 
tier by the French infantry under the command of the prince de 
Porcien, who was then at Metz, where he had been stationed to 
foil any effort the Emperor might make for its recovery.^ The 
priest-historian of Provins has graphically depicted the depreda- 
tions of the reiters: 

At the beginning of this war [he says] the people of the villages were so 
rich and well provided for, so well furnished in their houses with all kinds 
of furniture, so well provided with poultry and animals, that it was noble to 

see But the soldiers destroyed their beautiful tables, their shining 

brass-bound chests, and killed a great quantity of poultry without paying for 
it, or else offering a paltry sum in proportion to the number of soldiers who 
were lodged in the house. It was all one whether one man or many were so 
lodged, because the soldier who had a house to himself seized everything to his 
own profit. The wives and daughters of the peasantry were compelled to 
defend their honor. Property was seized and every sort of villainy was done 
by the soldiers, within the space of the three or four days that they might 
remain at a place. ^ 

Not since the Hundred Year's War had France beheld a people 
more fearful and formidable than were these reiters. They plund- 
ered the wretched people of all their goods, loading their horses 
and wagons therewith. Amid their equipment they carried win- 
nowing fans to winnow the grain, flails to beat it in the granges, 
and sacks to bind it up in. They had with them mills to grind 
the grain and little ovens to bake bread in. Wherever they lodged 
they tore up floors, broke into closets, and ransacked gardens, 

C. S. P. Ven., March 29, April 10 and 20, 1563. On the prince de 
Porcien, see Le Laboureur, I, 389; also an article by Delaborde in Bulletin de 
la Soc. prot. frang., XVIII, 2. Claude Haton gives some vivid details about this 
retirement of the reiters (Vol. I, p. 355). Cf. Correspondance de Catherine de 
Medicis, II, 15, 16, 42. On the case of the Three Bishoprics see St. Sulpice, ibid.; 
C. S. P. Ven., March 29, April 10, 1563; C. S. P. For., Nos. 323, §8, and 419, §5, 
420, 455 ; Neg. Tosc, III, 403. 
2 Claude Haton, I, 279, 280. 



194 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

courts, and chimneys, in order to find booty. They even fell upon 
the houses and chateaux of the nobles, where they passed, if they 
saw they were not strong or well defended.^ For this reason those 
living in poorly fortified houses vacated them and fled to the towns. 
Those who owned strong and well-fortified houses levied soldiers 
for their defense. What happened at Provins happened, doubtless, 
in many other places, too. 

In the carrefours of Provins, it was proclaimed that no inhabi- 
tant of the town, under pain of a fine of one hundred livres tournois 
and imprisonment, should leave it, and that every man at the 
hour of ten in the morning must report with his arms before the 
house of his sergeant {dizainier) for the purpose of mounting guard 
upon the walls, each in his own part of the city. Everybody in 
the surrounding country began to vacate their houses and to drive 
their cattle into the town. On the evening before Easter mes- 
sengers of Provins reported that the reiters w^re near. At this 
news watchers were set upon the wall of the town, and a corps de 
garde posted by the town authorities. On the morning of the 
morrow, which was Easter Sunday, the gates of the town were 
not opened until eight o'clock, upon which there poured into the 
town an infinite number of wagons and pack-animals laden with 
the possessions of the villagers round about. There was hardly 
room to bestow so many people and so many animals. Divine 
service was celebrated in the parish churches, for it was expected 
that the reiters would take their course toward the town, and the 
people were resolved not to let them enter, but to resist to the very 
last drop of blood. 

In order to ascertain what was the equipment and the arms of each in- 
habitant of the town, a general meeting was called at midday for a view of 
arms, but it was not possible to hold the meeting because all the streets and 
squares were packed with the refugees and their animals. In consequence of 
this, local meetings were held in each of the quarters of the city. Thus the 
day wore on and consternation abated only when it was learned that the 
reiters had gone off toward the Marne, which they crossed above Coulumiers. 
On the morrow, Easter Monday, there was no procession in the streets as 

I See the interesting account of an unsuccessful attempt by the reiters to 
storm a chateau (Claude Haton, I, 347-49). 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 195 

usual, for fear of a surprise, and it was not until evening that the people who 
had found refuge within the town, began to depart.^ 

But the undisguised hostility of Spain to the Edict of Amboise 
was a greater source of danger to France than protests of the Par- 
lement or popular violence. " If the heretics obtain their demands 
with the aid of the English queen," Chantonnay had threatened 
on March 6, "the Catholics in their turn will rise, and they will be 
sustained by the King my master and by all the Catholic princes."^ 
But Catherine was in no mood to be intimidated. She openly 
told him that he treated her as if he governed the country, and 
charged him with wilful fabrication, sarcastically adding that she 
could excuse him for so doing in some degree because she knew 
from whom he derived his opinions, meaning the constable and 
the two deceased members of the Triumvirate.^ Philip II's reli- 
gious convictions were outraged by the toleration of Calvinism al- 
lowed in the Edict of Amboise, the more so because the queen 
mother, in justification of the course of the government, com- 
promised the cKurch at large by declaring that the sole practical 
solution of the difficulty could be accomplished by a true general 
council of the church, and not by the one sitting at Trent, in defi- 
ance of whose conclusions she asserted the legality and inviolability 
of the edict.'* 

Catherine de Medici was deeply concerned over the conduct 
of the Council of Trent. For the programme of zealous advo- 

1 Claude Haton, I, 354. 

2 Quoted by Forneron, I, 277, note i. 

3 C. S. P. Ven., April 21, 1563. 

4 Correspund. de Cath. de Med. Introd., cxlv-vi; cf. R. Q. H., October 1869, 
349-51. Charles IX was firmly resolved to enforce the national traditions of 
the French monarchy with reference to the papacy. The fearless speech of Du 
Ferrier occasioned a sensation in the council. France was accused of wishing, 
like England, to secede from Rome and found a national church and it was even 
proposed to hand the ambassador over to the Inquisition (Fremy, Un ambassa- 
deur liberal sous Charles IX et Henri III, 1880, p. 49). So energetic were the 
remonstrances of Lansac that he was derisively called the "ambassador of the 
Huguenots" (Fremy, 21). 

On April 15, 1563, the King wrote to the cardinal of Lorraine to inform him 
that, having grown impatient at the slowness of the Council of Trent, he was send- 
ing the president Biragues to Trent and then to the Emperor with a mission to have 



196 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

cates of the counter-Reformation there aimed at church consoHda- 
tion and the enlargement of papal authority to such an extent that 
the immemorial liberties of the Gallican church, confirmed by the 
great concordat of 15 16, and the rights of the crown over the tem- 
porahties of the church in France were seriously threatened. The 
comphcation of the Huguenots with England and the murder of 
the duke of Guise had brought this issue to a head. In the month 
in which the duke was assassinated there was a significant meeting 
of the ambassadors of the ultra- Catholic powers resident at the 
French court, in which it was resolved to support the Council in 
matters of religion; to prevent future appropriation of church 
revenues by the state under pain of excommunication; to stamp 
out heresy; and to avenge the murder of the duke of Guise. ' The 
cardinal of Lorraine was the chief representative of France at 
Trent and perhaps the most conspicuous prelate there. He was 
bitter against the pohcy of Charles IX, advocating utter suppression 
of the Huguenots. His continuance at Trent, therefore, became 
a danger to France and Catherine de Medici dexterously found 
means to remove him by sending him on special errands to Vienna 
and Venice, leaving the case of France at Trent in the hands of 
the sieur de Lansac, whose loyalty to the CathoHc faith did not 
subvert his patriotism.^ 

the council transferred to a freer place if possible. The King declared that if the 
reforms demanded by Christianity were not accorded and confirmed by the coun- 
cil, France would not hesitate to convoke a national council. (See the instruction 
to D'Oysel in Corresp. de Catherine de Medicis, II, 1-3, note.) 

1 "Articles de I'alegation de messieurs les ambassadeurs, estant de present a 
la cour; envoyez, I'un par nostre saint pere le Pape, I'autre par I'Empereur, Roy des 
Remains, I'autre par le Roy d'Espaigne, et le Prince de Piedmont. Au Roy de 
France et princes de son sang, au mois de Fevrier, 1563," Mem. de Conde, V, 406-8; 
cf. L' Ambassade de Si. Sulpice, 135 and 167. 

2 Lansac and Du Ferrier were the ambassadors of France at Trent. Lansac's 
instructions, which outline the policy of France, are in Baschet, Journal du Con- 
cile de Trente, etc., 251-65; add D'Aubigne, Book III, chap, xxi; St. Sulpice, 
28, 64, IC2, 114, 130, 141, 160-63. On Lansac, see Carres pondance de Cath- 
erine de Medicis, Index; upon Du Ferrier, consult Fremy, Uti ambassadeur liberal 
sous Charles IX et Henri III, 1880. 

The cardinal of Lorraine, while agreeing with Philip II, as to religion and 
heresy, looked with resentment upon the King's attempt to appropriate the political 



THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 197 

Aside from his religious antagonism, Philip II regarded 
his own political interests as also jeopardized by the French 
situation. He was alarmed at the possible recovery of Calais 
by England/ and the progress of heresy and rebellion in the 
Netherlands, especially at Valenciennes and Tournay, was cer- 
tain to be encouraged by the example of France, while a com- 
mon effort of the Huguenots of Picardy and those of the religion 
across the Flemish border was seriously feared.^ 

destiny of Mary Stuart to his own ends (St. Sulpice to Lansac, December 15, 1562, 
p. 103). The whole council was filled with disaffection; 150 out of the 230 members 
present were Italians, most of these pensioners of Rome, so that the others re- 
sented their preponderance (Lansac to St. Sulpice, February 10, 1563, U Ambassade 
de St. Sulpice, 115). 

There were conflicts as to precedence; some of the ambassadors hke Lansac and 
Du Ferrier believed in qualified toleration of Protestants (St. Sulpice, 115); many 
of the members, while believing in the enlargement of the Pope's prerogatives in 
religious affairs, were opposed to a reduction of governmental rights of control over 
ecclesiastical temporalities. Philip IPs attitude in this respect was identical with 
that of Charles IX — each wanted to exercise political control over the church within 
his kingdom (St. Sulpice, 198). Even the cardinal of Lorraine was an advocate of 
temporal independence (St. Sulpice, 161). See Baschet, Journal du Concile de 
Trente; the Appendix has a valuable bibliography of the history of the Council of 
Trent. M. Baguenault de la Puchesse' article in R. Q. H., 1869, may be added. 
The cardinal of Lorraine left Trent on March 23. M. Baschet questions (p. 214): 
"Que sont devenues toutes les depeches qu'il a du ecrire a la Reine mere, tant sur 
sa negociation avec I'Empereur, que sur sa visite a la Republique de Venise et son 
voyage en Cour de Rome, pour I'accomplissement desquels il s'etait deplace de sa 
residence au Concile ?" He was not aware of the fact, when he wrote in 1870, that 
Count Hector de la Ferriere had shortly before discovered them in the archives 
at St. Petersburg (La Ferriere, Deux annees de mission a Saint Petersbourg, 51). 
For the cardinal's mission to Venice see R. Q. H., October 1869, 349, 350, and 385, 
note. 

1 Forbes, II, 271; C. S. P. For., No. 1,193, §5> December 5, 1562. Granvella 
to the King, March 10, 1563; Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les 
Pays-Bas, I, 239; cf. Philip to Margaret of Parma, May 16, ibid., I, 249. 

2 The fear was amply justified. Granvella wrote to his sovereign on December 
22, 1563: "Le situation actuelle de la France est plus facheuse qui j'aie vue depuis 
la mort du roi Francois." — Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 284. Ga- 
chard, Rapport sur les archives de Lille, 218, cites a remark made in 1562: 
"Messieurs, acoustez bien ce qui adviendra en France entre les catholicques et les 
Huguenots; cas, au son flageolet de Franche il vous faudra danser par decha." 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE WAR WITH ENGLAND— THE PEACE OF TROYES' (1563-64) 

The closure of the civil war was a necessary condition precedent 
to the war France now planned to wage with her "adversary of 
England" for the recovery of Havre-de- Grace. Catherine de 
Medici had paid Cohgny's reiters in order to close the chasm as 
soon as possible. The keen-witted representatives of Queen 
Elizabeth in France— Throckmorton and Smith — had done all 
in their power to diussade the Protestants from making peace."* 
Too late Elizabeth perceived the result of her procrastination. 
War between England and France over Havre was inevitable,^ 
though in March the French government dissembled its real 
intention, giving the Enghsh to understand that the last portion 
of the fourth article of the peace, which referred to putting strangers 
out of the realm, applied to the German reiters.-* 

The English declared that if the French would restore Calais 
to the queen, EHzabeth would surrender Havre-de- Grace and 
Dieppe, with all that was held by the English in Normandy.^ But 
the French contended that the English, having occupied Havre- 
de- Grace, were deprived of all right to Calais,^ and declined to 
entertain such a proffer, hoping to recover Havre-de- Grace by 
force' and also to remain masters of Calais by virtue of the treaty 

1 On this subject see La Ferriere, La Normandie a I'etranger, and his article 
entitled, "La paix de Troyes avec I'Angleterre," R. Q. H.. XXXIII, 36 ff. 
Much of the article is reprinted from the introduction to Correspondance de Ca- 
therine de Medicis, II. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 443, March 13, 1563, Smith to D'Andelot; cf. 511, the 
Privy Council to Warwick, March 23, 1563; Forbes, II, 363. 

3 The prince of Eboli and the duke of Alva proposed that Havre-de-Grace 
be put temporarily into the hands of Philip II, he to mediate between England and 
France! (St. Sulpice to Charles IX, July 11, 1563, and to Catherine, August 27; 
L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 137, 151.) 

4 C. S. P. For., No. 498, March 22, 1563, Elizabeth to Smith. 

5 Ibid., Ven., No. 319, January 24, 1563. 

6 Charles IX to St. Sulpice, June 20, 1563; L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 122, 123. 

7 Ibid., 136. 



THE WAR WITH ENGLAND 199 

of 1559, which provided that if, during the term of the treaty, 
which was to endure for the space of eight years, the Enghsh ac- 
quired other possessions in France, they would immediately lose 
their right to Calais. To this England repHed that France had 
been the first offender, when French troops were sent into Scotland 
in aid of Queen Mary; and that thereby the treaty was broken 
and Calais was due her. Elizabeth refused to see that her own 
selfish conduct had compelled the Huguenots to make terms, and 
bitterly upbraided the Huguenot leaders for their "desertion."' 
The determination to push the war proceeded entirely from 
the queen, the chief members of the government having opposed 
it both because of the strength of the fortress, which they thought 
difficult to take, and also because of the confusion which still pre- 
vailed in the kingdom. On April 7 the prince of Conde was 
estabhshed in the Heutenantship. Marshal Brissac, who was chief 
miHtary commander, a week later quitted Paris for Normandy in 
company with the Swiss, and the whole artillery lately used before 
Orleans was sent forward.^ Artillery and ammunition were sent 
by the river, and provisions also were forwarded. The campaign 
was delayed until this time for two reasons: first, to ascertain 
whether the internal disturbances could be quelled and the reiters 
gotten out of the kingdom, as otherwise it would have been peril- 
ous to make any movement in the direction of the coast ; secondly, 
all the territory of Normandy had been so devasted by the war that 

1 Neither Coligny nor D'Andelot could be prevailed upon to serve in the war 
against England, although believing they had been shabbily treated by Elizabeth. 
The admiral openly refused; D'Andelot feigned illness; Conde alone, of the Hugue- 
not leaders, bore arms against his former ally — "I'honneur de la France couvrait 
son ingratitude." — Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., xii, 
xiii, xvii; cf. C. S. P. For., Nos. 498, 511, 541, and especially 548, March, 1563. 
Elizabeth had replied to the envoy sent to her by the prince of Conde to notify her 
of the peace made by the prince with the King and to treat for the restitution of 
Havre-de-Grace, that as the envoy had neither power nor commission from the 
King, she would not negotiate with him, and that nothing must be said about Havre- 
de-Grace unless the affairs of Calais were first adjusted (C. 5. P. Ven., May 18, 
1563)- 

2 Ibid., For., No. 936, April 17, 1563. Warwick in a letter to Lord Robert 
Dudley and Cecil of April 23, 1563, estimates the French force around Havre at 
10,000 French and 6,000 Swiss {ibid.. No. 659; Forbes, II, 398). 



200 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the army could not be maintained except at very great cost and 
inconvenience. Fortunately for the French government anxiety 
with reference to the Emperor's designs regarding Metz was now 
removed, the cardinal of Lorraine having persuaded Ferdinand 
that if the Three Bishoprics were restored they would become a 
refuge for the heretics from Lower Germany and Luxembourg.'^ 

The queen mother appealed to Paris to obtain 200,000 crowns, 
and a royal edict commanded the clergy to contribute 100,000 
ecus de rentes annual revenue.^ At the same time a government 
octroi upon wines was laid for six years, to the dismay of many 
towns, which opposed the execution of the edict, claiming that 
the vine and wine were their sole means of HveHhood.^ The King 
also went to Parlement to obtain pecuniary supplies there against 
England, saying that the 200,000 crowns from the city was to be 
used to pay the reiters of the Rhinegrave, who had mutinied for 
their pay in Champagne, to quit the kingdom, "^ Paris readily 
responded, "the Parisians caring not what they gave to recover 
Newhaven;" it had been "a scourge and loss to them of many 
millions of francs" during that year.^ 

Meanwhile the position of Warwick in Havre had grown so 

I C. S. P. For., No. 652, Mundt to Cecil, April 20, 1563, from Strasburg; cf. 
No. 659, Warwick to the Privy Council on the authority of the Rhinegrave, April 23, 
1563; Forbes, II, 398. Nevertheless, the French continued to fortify Metz against 
the future (C. S. P. For., No. 705, May 4, 1563). 

= The church complied by mortgaging its possessions to this amount (Claude 
Haton, I, 330). They were redeemed in the March following (Catherine de Medici 
to St. Sulpice, December 22, 1563; L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 203; Journal de 
Bruslart, 141. The transaction cost the church 3,230,000 livres. Some of the 
clergy claimed that the King had no right to do this without papal authorization 
(Claude Haton, loc. cit.). 

3 The rate was fixed at five livres for each measure of wine, and at 6 sous, 8 
deniers, for each queue (Claude Haton, I, 330, 331). The farm of this gabelle was 
sold at Provins for the sum of 600 livres. 

4". . . . Led. prince dit avoir moyen de faire sortir . . . . les Allemans 
qu'il a en grand nombre." — L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, loi; C. S. P. For., 
Nos. 688; 748, §§13, 20; 753, §§5, 10; No. 764 {anno 1563); C. S. P. Ven., No. 326, 
May 18, 1563. 

5 C. S. P. Eng. For., No. 750, §§6, 7, May 16, 1563; No. 753, §5, May 17; 
No. 770, May 20, 1563. 



THE WAR WITH ENGLAND 201 

bad that he had expelled all strangers from the town.* Anticipat- 
ing a siege, a new fosse 30 feet wide, 10 feet broad, and 8 feet deep 
had been constructed outside of the old ditch around the town. 
The delay of the English government, however, was fatal to the 
success of Warwick. All his labors went for naught.^ On May 22 
the French assault upon Havre began in earnest.^ In the midst 
of the tedium and the anxiety Catherine de Medici dominated 
all, having no regard for her own convenience, but being in vigor- 
ous action at all hours, and under great mental strain most of 
the time. Yet her patience, her address, and her assiduous atten- 
tion during the time of the siege to the councils of the govern- 
ment, and to her continual audiences, were remarkable. "Her 
Majesty," wrote the Venetian ambassador, "exceeds all that could 
be expected from her sex, and even from an experienced man of 
valor, or from a powerful king and military captain." She insisted 
on being present at all the assaults, and even in the trenches, 
where cannon-balls and arquebus-bullets were flying.^ 

The character of Catherine de Medici from this time forth, 
throughout her long and varied career, continued to fill her sub- 
jects with astonishment. s Not even the most consummate courtier 

1 C. S. P. For., 584, April 5, 1563; Forbes, II, 573. 

2 Warwick had barely 5,000 men of all sorts to defend the town (C. 5. P. For., 
No. 680, Muster of April 29-30, 1563). There was much sickness. Food was scarce. 
"The estate of victuals here," wrote the earl to the Privy Council on April 30, 
"rests now upon a scarce proportion of one month in bread and corn (of beer we 
can make no further account than as long as we are masters of water, to brew), 
having neither ilesh, fish, butter, nor cheese, nor any meat of the queen's store but 
bacon for two days. The clerk of the store here is as bare in money as victuals. 
.... The enemy's chief hope for taking this town rests upon famine." — C. S. P. 
For., No. 676; Forbes, II, 402. Warwick pointed out, however, that if the queen 
"would put forth a power upon the sea" and keep the mouth of the Seine open, as 
well as prevent relief from being brought from Flanders and Brittany, Havre might 
be saved. "Their whole relief must come to them by Picardy side, which 
will not suffice long; neither can they be victualled by land any way, if the com- 
modities of the seas be by this means taken away." — C. S. P. Dom., XXVII, 15, 
January 12, 1563. Cf. XXVIII, 48, May 8, 1563. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 786; Forbes, II, 427. 

4 C. S. P. Ven., No. 328, May 28, 1563. 

5 Pel. ven., II, 155; cf. II, 45. "Non si puo gia negare che non sia donna di 
gran valore e di gran spirito." — Ibid., I, 548. "Tres-sage et tres-universelle en 
tout." — Brantome, III, 249. 



202 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

could have praised her beauty. She had big eyes and thick Hps, 
like Leo X, her great-uncle.' She possessed, too, the character- 
istics of her family. She loved to erect public edifices; to collect 
books. She made a profession of satisfying everybody, at least 
in words, of which she was not saving. Her industry in public 
business was the subject of astonishment. Nothing was too small 
for her notice. She could neither eat nor drink without talking 
poHtics. She followed the army without regard to her health 
or even her hfe. Her physical characteristics, if not the admira- 
tion, were certainly the wonder of all. She was fond of good-Kving, 
eating much and irregularly, and was addicted to physical exercise, 
especially hunting, which she also followed for the purpose of 
reducing her weight. With this design, incredible as it may seem, 
she often rode clad in heavy furs.^ When fifty years of age she 
could walk so fast that no one in the court was wilhng to follow her. 

The difficulties of the French in the siege of Havre-de- Grace 
were very great. The locality was surrounded for the distance 
of a mile by marsh and by the waters of the sea, which were cut 
by inaccessible canals. There was a strand of sand on the seaside 
only about thirty yards distant from the wall at low tide. The 
besiegers passed along the shore, somewhat concealed by the 
sand and gravel cast up by the sea, and wedged themselves and 
their artillery between this strand and the sea, and opened fire. 
By the end of July the French had approached so near the walls 
of Havre-de- Grace that they were almost able to batter them 
point-blank, and the besieged went out to parley and demanded 
four days' time to communicate with England. ^ 

The garrison was reduced to a sorry plight, for the French were 
about to storm the place, as they had already battered effectually 
and dismantled a bulwark and several towers of the fort and filled 
up the whole moat, so that with but a little more work they would 
have opened a road for theniselves securely with a spade. They 
had, moreover, a battery of forty cannon, so that while only twenty 

1 Rel. ven., I, 375. 

2 Ibid., I, 429. 

3 C. S. P. Ven., No. 338, July 27, 1563; L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 141, 142. 




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THE WAR WITH ENGLAND 203 

or thirty shots each day formed the usual feature of a siege at this 
time, the French now fired more than a hundred and twenty shots.' 
At last on July 28 Warwick agreed to surrender Havre-de- Grace, 
and to embark in four days. Two days later the Enghsh admiral 
Clinton appeared in sight, with thirty ships and five galliots. The 
French artillery was then directed toward the sea, so the admiral 
set sail the next evening with the fleet, and the French army 
entered on Sunday, August i, 1563.^ 

The capture of Havre was of immense immediate advantage to 
France, especially to Normandy, Havre being the door through 
which all the traffic and commerce entered, not only to Rouen, 
but also to Normandy, and to a great part of France. Without 
this commerce Normandy-of -the- Seine suffered greatly.^ 

But Elizabeth was reluctant to believe that she had been beaten, 
and the autumn of the year witnessed tedious negotiations.'* The 
chief difficulty between the two crowns turned on the restitution 
of Calais. The French insisted that they were absolved from the 
terms of Cateau-Cambresis through the action taken by England 
in the matter of Havre-de- Grace; that thereby forfeiture of the 

1 I have come upon an interesting item in the history of the art of war in con- 
nection with this siege of Havre. In January, 1563, a Corsican, resident in Spain, 
by the name of Pietro Paolo del Delfino offered his services to St. Sulpice. "II 
va dans I'eau," wrote the ambassador to Catherine, "et m'a assure qu'avec certains 
engins il erapechera que nul navire venant d'Angleterre puisse aborder aud. Havre 
sans grand danger." In June Delfino arrived at Bois de Vincennes, where he was 
well received, according to his own statement {L' Ambassade de Si. Sulpice, 112, and 
n. 4). But I do not find any further mention of him. Was this invention a sort 
of torpedo ? We know that shells were first used in the siege of Orleans in this 
year. 

2 C. S. P. Ven., No. 341, August 6, 1563; on the progress of the siege and the 
condition of Havre cf. ibid., For., 1563, Nos. 754, §6; 762, 806, §§ 4, 5; 828, 835, 
852, §4; 853, §4; 857, §8; 871, 881, 894, 907, §2; 941, 967, 973, §2; 977, §4; 982, 
§9; 998, 1007, 1021, 1024, 1026, §7; 1044, §4; 1049, 1081, 1086, HOC, 1208, 
1296. In Appendix VI is a letter of Admiral Clinton to Lord Burghley, July 31, 
1563, in which he says that the plague, not the arms of France, has conquered 
them. 

3 C. S. P. Ven., No. 343, August 14, 1563. 

4 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., xxvi-xxviii; L' Ambassade 
de St. Sulpice, 177, 194, 195. 



204 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

English right to Calais was made.' Elizabeth, on the other hand, 
would not make peace unless her pretensions were recognized.^ 

In the meanwhile, in the seas of Flanders, France, and England 
thousands of acts of piracy were committed, and trade in the 
Channel was quite interrupted.^ A partial agreement at last was 
patched up. On April ii, 1564, the treaty of peace was signed 
at Troyes,** the articles yielding Havre-de- Grace to France, in 
return for 120,000 gold crowns, a sum which the English grud- 
gingly took, though they had demanded a half million, the terms 
also providing for property indemnifications and freedom of com- 
merce between the two nations. 

Nothing was specified as to Calais. After three years of nego- 
tiations the question still remained unsettled. In June, 1567, Sir 
Thomas Smith, Elizabeth's ambassador, demanded the restitu- 
tion of Calais. Charles was evasive, saying that the messenger 
must be content to wait till the King had obtained the consent 
of his council, before whom the King told Smith openly that he 
would not restore Calais, but would hold it as the possession of 
his ancestors, to which the queen of England had no just right. 
When the ambassador replied, citing the word of the treaty, the 
chancellor answered that the promise had been given under the 
express conditions that the Enghsh queen should not in any way 
molest the subjects or territory of France or Scotland, but from 
what had taken place at Havre-de- Grace it appeared manifest 
that she had forfeited all claims which she might have had to Calais. 
The King's rejoinder was notable in that it is so excellent an ex- 
ample of the French doctrine of "natural frontiers," Charles IX 

1 "Adieu le droit de Calais," wrote Robertet, Charles IX's secretary, on 
July 4, 1561, to St. Sulpice {L' Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 142). 

2 C. S. P. Ven., 347, November 11, 1563; ibid., For., No. 6, January 4, 1564; 
No. 47, January 15. 

3 Ibid., Ven., No. 348, November 18, 1563; Archives de la Gironde, XVII, 
293- 

4 The text of the treaty is in Rymer's Foedera, XV, 640. La Ferriere has an 
extended account of the negotiations in Carres pondance de Catherine de Medicis, 
II, Introd., xxxiv-xliv. For other details see C. 5. P. For., 1564, Nos. 6, 47, 250- 
S3i 297, 307-10, 314, 347, 363, 364. On the great commercial importance of the 
treaty of Troyes, see De Ruble, Le traite de Cateau-Cambresis, 193, 194. 



THE WAR WITH ENGLAND 205 

replying to the effect that the queen ought not to regret the loss 
of Calais, knowing that of old it was the possession of the crown 
of France, and that God had willed it to return to its first master, 
and that the two realms ought to remain content with the frontiers 
created for them by nature and with a boundary so clearly defined 
as the sea.^ 

' C. 5. p. Ven., 1564, No. 388. 



CHAPTER IX 
EARLY LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 

Thanks to her own enterprise in pushing the war which had 
culminated with so much honor to France, and partly also to her 
skilful handhng of the factions at court, Catherine de Medici was 
now in enjoyment of supreme power. The entire weight of the 
government rested on her shoulders, there being no longer any 
other person who controlled public affairs. The Guises and 
Chatillon factions were full of animosity toward one another, for 
Madame de Guise refused to recognize the admiral's acquittal 
for the murder of her husband ;^ Montmorency was deeply offended 
because the young duke of Guise received the grand-mastership 
and the gift of the duchy of Chatellerault, and so feigned to have 
the gout in order to avoid service before Havre; Conde was doubly 
angry at the queen, both because she withheld the promised lieu- 
tenant's commission and because the daughter of Marshal St. 
Andre, who left a great fortune, was not permitted to marry his 
son. The parties were, therefore, in a triangular relation toward 
one another and Catherine's art was bent upon maintaining the 
balance in order to hold her own.^ 

The population of the wittiest city in Europe was quick to 
perceive the animosities and paradoxes that existed. "The 
Parisians have three things to wonder at," the saying went, "the 
constable's beads, the chancellor's mass, and the cardinal Chatil- 
lon's red cap. One is ever mumbhng over his beads and his head 

1 "A Paris arriva toute la maison de Lorraine vestue de deuil, pour faire une 
solemnelle demande de justice exemplaire sur la mort du due de Guise." — D'Au- 
bigne, II, 204; the request bearing date September 26, 1563, is in Mem. de Conde, 
IV, 667. 

Coligny was so fearful of suffering violence in Paris from the bigotry of the 
populace or at the instigation of the Guises, that he would not enter the city. 

2 On these feuds see C. S. P. For., anno 1563, No. 748, §§i-6, 15; No. 753, 
§1; No. 770; No. 896, §3; No. 912, §4; No. 1,003, §3; No. 1,212; No. 1,233, §4; 
No. 1,249; No- i>287; No. 1,337, §3; No. 1,431; No. 1,445, §8'> Proceedings of 
the Huguenot Society, letters of April 20, 30, May i, 21, 27, 31. 

206 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 207 

is ever occupied with other affairs; the other hears mass daily 
and is the chief Huguenot in France; the third wears a cardinal's 
cap and defies the Pope."' The queen mother had hoped that 
religious animosities would be forgotten in the course of the war 
Avith England. But she was disappointed. The peace of Am- 
boise could not be enforced. Even in Paris armed troops and 
armed guards had to patrol the streets to prevent outbreaks of 
violence. "^ It was impossible to disarm the Catholics, who made 
house-to-house searches to ferret out Huguenots.^ Under the 
terms of pacification the Protestants were permitted to return to 
Paris, but who dared avail himself of so precarious a liberty ? 
Instead, they were compelled to sacrifice their property.^* In the 
provinces the same condition of things prevailed — in Languedoc, 
in the Orleannais, in the Lyonnais.^ In Languedoc the association 
of the Huguenots maintained its organization, raised money, levied 
troops.^ Yet in spite of its failure to enforce pacification, the 
government required the demolition of the walls of towns known 
to be Huguenot strongholds, as Orleans, Montauban, and St. L6, 
a procedure which the Protestants strongly resisted; so that a 
condition of petty civil war existed throughout much of France, 
the Edict of Amboise notwithstanding.'^ Summarized, the troubles 
of France at this time may be said to have been the feud between 
the house of Guise and that of Chatillon — a feud which compro- 

I C. S. p. For., No. 1,558, December 29, 1563. "Le connetable lui meme, 
tout en etant homme de bien catholique, etait cependant carnale, et voulait avoir 
appui des deux cotes." — Baschet, Journal du Concile de Trente, 240. 

- For examples see C. S. P. For., No. 982, §§i, 2, an episode of the last week 
of June, 1563; ibid., Ven., 'No. 333; Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II 
Introd., xxix. 

3 A law was made in August forbidding the wearing of any weapon but sword 
and dagger; concealment of firearms was an offense punishable by confiscation of 
lands and goods (Edict of Caen, August 24, L' Ambassade de St. Siilpice, 147; 
C. S. P. For., No. 1,394, October 1563; ibid., No. 912). 

4 C. S. P. For., No. 1,003, Juty 14) ^5^3; ibid., Ven., No. 330, June 10. 

5 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II. Introd., xxxii, xxxiii (many 
examples). 

6 C. S. P. For., Nos. 896, §§3, 17; 912, §4. 

7 Ibid., Nos. 1,155, 1,387, 1,394, i,43i> i>445. <^nno 1563. 



2o8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

mised the crown and most of the other great famiHes of the king- 
dom; the queen's ambition to govern, which led her to nourish 
the quarrel; rehgious intolerance; the poverty of the crown; the 
uncertainty of its foreign relations; and finally the detriment to 
its commerce on account of the war with England, which deprived 
France of four or five millions of gold.' 

Even before peace was made between France and England 
it had been decided that the King should make a tour of the prov- 
inces for the better pacification of the country.^ A programme 
of administrative and financial reform was developed at the same 
time. The army was to be reduced; in place of the royal garrisons 
there was to be a "belle mihce" of forty ensigns of footmen, ten 
each in Picardy, Normandy, Languedoc, and Dauphine. These 
troops were to be supported partly by the crown, partly by the 
provinces. The Scotch Guard was to be cut down. Through 
the church's aid twelve millions of the public debt, including the 
unpaid balance of the dowries of Elizabeth of Spain and the duch- 
ess of Savoy, were to be paid off within six years and the alienated 
domains of the crown redeemed.^ Already Charles IX's majority 
had been declared at Rouen, during the course of the siege of 
Havrc^ — a dexterous stroke of the queen mother to thwart the 
ambitions of the factions. ^ 

1 The fisheries of France, however, were profitable. "They quietly make 

their herring fishery .... without impeachment Their fish-markets were 

never better furnished." — C. S. P. For., No. 1,356, Throckmorton to the queen 
November i, 1563. 

2 Castelnau, Book V, chaps, vii-ix. 

3" Instructions pour le Sieur de Lansac, envoye en Espagne, Janvier 1564," 
U Amhassade de St. Sulpice, 223. 

4 August 18, 1563. The official promulgation is in Mem. de Condi, IV, 574. 
Declaration jaicte par le Roy en sa majorite tenant son lict de justice en sa conr de 
Parlement de Rouen, Robert Estienne, Paris, 1563. 

5 L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, loi, 102; R. Q. H., XXIV, 459; Claude Haton, 
I, 363, and n. 2; Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., xxiii; C. S. P. 
For., No. 1,190, September, 1563. 

The declaration, by a technicality, contravened the testament of Charles V 
(1374), which for centuries had been the law regulating the King's majority. Charles 
IX was born on June 17, 1550, so that he was in his fourteenth year, though not yet 
fourteen years old. The Parlement of Paris for more than a month refused to 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 209 

In the early spring of 1564 the court set out from Fontainebleau, 
and thence went to Sens and Troves, where the peace was signed; 
from Troyes the way led to Bar-le-Duc and Nancy. But the 
journey of the King, instead of allaying the disquietude of the 
Huguenots, alarmed them still more. For the strongest overtures 
were made to the King to break the peace of Amboise, not only 
by provincial authorities' but also through the ambassadors of 
certain of the Catholic powers. 

The Council of Trent had finished its labors with somewhat 
unseemly haste on December 4, 1563, on account of the antici- 
pated decease of Pius IV,^ and strong pressure was brought upon 
the French and Spanish governments to accept its findings. ^ The 
Pope, in consistory, accepted them in their integrity, on January 
26, 1564.4 But various European governments, especially France, 
strongly objected to the findings as prejudicial to the interests of 
monarchy.^ On the first Monday in Lent the cardinal of Lorraine 

register the edict, not on political, but on religious grounds. It objected to "la 
mention de I'edit de pacification d' Amboise, introduite sans motif dans la declara- 
tion de I'edit de la majorite, ce que semblait reconnattre deux religions." — Corre- 
spondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., xxiv. The Venetian ambassador gives 
an interesting character-sketch of Charles IX at this time (Rel. ven., I, 419). 

1 The estates of Burgundy declared in a memorial that it was impossible to 
maintain double worship in France and petitioned that Protestant worship might 
be abolished in that province. May 18, 1563 (D'Aubigne, II, 205; Mem. de Conde, 
IV, 413; Castelnau, Book V, chap. vi. 

2 "S'etaeint tous departis avec une hate extreme causee sur la disposition du 
pape." — Testu to Catherine de Medici, L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 207. "Les 
eveques franjais se declarent obliges de partir, se voyant prives de ressources." — 
Baschet, Journal du Concile de Trente, 239. 

3 The Pope sent the bishop of Vintimilla to Spain to persuade Philip II to 
enforce the Tridentine decrees in favor of the counter- Reformation (U Ambassade 
de St. Sulpice, 174, 200, 217, 218). See also a letter of Luna, Philip II's am- 
bassador at Trent, of November 17, 1563, in Carres pondencia de las principes de 
Alemania con Felipe II, y de las Embajadores de Este en la Corti di Vienna {ijS6- 
g8) in "Documentos ineditos," CI, 24. 

"^ Annales Raynaldi, 1564, No. i; Labbe, XIV, 939; cf. R. Q. H., October, 
(1869), 402. 

5 For the grounds of objection see R. Q. H. (October, 1869), 365, 366, and 
401-8; Fremy, Diplomates du temps de la Ligue, 45. In Vol. LXXXVI, Coll. , 
de St. Petersbourg, is a collection of letters, many of them from Lansac and the 
cardinal of Lorraine while at the Council of Trent. These are the letters whose 
disappearance Baschet wondered at and deplored (La Ferriere, Rapport, 58). 



2IO THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

presented the decrees of Trent to the King in council and 
others of the Parlement, urging that their adoption was necessary 
for the repose of the kingdom. The debate which followed, in a 
certain sense was a test of strength between the moderate Catholic 
party, led by the chancellor L'Hopital and the Guises. Much 
objection was made to the findings, especially by the chancellor, 
who asserted that they were contrary to the privileges of the Gal- 
ilean church, and that the cardinal's party was now trying to com- 
pass by craft what they had failed to do by force of arms. The 
cardinal rejoined with words to the effect that L'Hopital was 
unmindful of the benefits he had received of them (the Guises), 
using the word "ingrate" {ingrat). To this the chancellor haughti- 
ly returned that he had never received any benefits from the car- 
dinal or his family, .that he had only filled the post of mattre de 
requetes, which was not a high office, and that he did not desire 
to pay his debts at the expense of the King's sovereignty by voting 
in favor of the decrees. In the end, France refused to accept all 
of the findings.^ 

With the closing of the Council of Trent, the representatives 
of the ultra- Catholic powers, notably Spain and Savoy, intimated 
to Charles IX that their sovereigns would assist him in the extir- 
pation of heresy in France. The offer was both a promise and 
a menace, the imphcation being that the Cathohc world at large 
would not tolerate the recognition of Protestantism accorded by 
France and that a joint action of the powers most concerned might 
compel the king of France to hve up to his title of Most Christian 
King. The cardinal of Lorraine had carried the idea of the Trium- 
virate to Trent with him,^ and on the floor of the Council had 
proposed the formation of an association to be called "The Broth- 

1 Charles IX to St. Sulpice, February 26, 1564, L' Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 
229; D'Aubigne. II, 223; L'Estoile, I, 19; Bulletin de la Soc prot. frang., XXIV, 
412. Catherine makes no allusion to this scene in her letter to Elizabeth of Spain 
dii i\i\?, s,&a.?,on {U Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 237). But on a subsequent occasion, 
when the cardinal of Lorraine dropped the remark that the Council of Trent ought 
to be called Spanish, the queen mother replied "qu'il avait raison, et que aussi 
lui meme s'etait montre tel et plus de ce parti que de tout autre." — Ibid., 383. 

2 R. Q. H., XXXI\^ 462; Fremy, Diplomates de la ligiie, chap. i. 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 2ii 

erhood of Catholics in France." He offered to secure the co-oper- 
ation of his nephews, relatives, and friends, and returned to France 
with the consent of the Pope for that purpose.' The Triumvirate, 
as we have seen, had already made overtures to Spain, to which 
Phihp II had responded with cordial, if no very definite sentiments, 
and from the time of the promulgation of the Edict of January 
and the formation of the Triumvirate, the idea of a Catholic league 
in which the Pope and the king of Spain were to be the chief pil- 
lars, begins to take shape.^ The mission of Louis de St. Gelais, 
sieur de Lansac, to Trent and Rome in this month, was partly 
to prevent the formation of such a league, and partly to persuade 
the Pope to approve the French government's appropriation of 
the property of the church. Granvella was not unfavorable to the 
idea, though in his eyes such a league should be formed, not for 
the purpose of intervening in France, but as a defensive measure, 
lest Catherine endeavor to profit by the critical situation prevailing 
in the Spanish Netherlands and interfere there in order to divert 
the discontent of the French from home affairs, and to prevent the 
Protestants of the Netherlands from assisting their coreligionists 
in France. 3 

The outbreak of civil war after the massacre of Vassy and the 
seizure of Havre-de- Grace by the English had convinced Philip II 
that the time to act had come in France, and Spanish troops and 
Spanish money were put at the disposal of the Guises, although 
Phihp denied to England that he was giving succor to Catholic 
France.4 In May, and again in August of 1562, the Triumvirate 
appealed to Philip II, ^ and on June 6 the Spanish King wrote to the 
regent in the Netherlands to send the Triumvirate assistance. But 

1 Tavannes, 291. 

2 Vargas, Spanish ambassador in Rome, to the cardinal Granvella, February 
22, 1561 (Papiers d'etat du card, de Granvelle, VI, 512, 513; R. Q. H., XXXIV, 460). 

3 On January 16, 1562, Granvella wrote to Perez from Brussels that it was 
already impossible to prevent this (Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur 
les Pays-Bas, I, 198). 

4 Philip II to Quadra, Spanish ambassador in England, August 4, 1562 
{Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VI, 606). 

5 La Popeliniere, Book VIII, 591, 634, gives the text of these appeals. 



212 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the order was easier to give than to execute, and exactly a month later 
(July 6) both Margaret and Granvella repHed, asserting the imprac- 
tibility of carrying out Philip's wishes on the ground that no money 
could be procured from the estates for such a purpose.^ In the 
meantime, the cardinal-legate in France, convinced that "in order 
to lay the ax at the root of the evil, there was no shorter way and 
no better expedient than recourse to arms,"^ and impatient of 
Spain's slow reply to the petition of the Triumvirate,^ stirred up 
both the Vatican and the court of Madrid to HveHer action/ As 
a result, although it was against their better judgment, Margaret 
and Granvella prevailed upon the Council of State in August to 
appropriate 50,000 ecus for the war in France, and in September 
3,000 ItaHans were sent from Franche Comte to the aid of Ta- 
vannes in Burgundy. ^ 

The elements of the future Holy League are here manifest as 
early as 1561-62. But apart from the course being followed out 
in high political circles, at the same time, popular associations 
for the maintenance of the Catholic religion were being formed 
within France. The years 1562-63 witnessed the formation of 

1 "Les etats ne payeraient un maravedis aux bandes d'ordonnance si on 
voulait envoyer celles-ci en France." — Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II siir 
les Pays-Bas, T, 206. 

2 "Pour coupper la racine du mal, il ny puisse avoir de plus courte voye, ny 
de meilleur expedient que alluy d'armes." — Lettres dti cardinal de F err are, Letter 
XXX, 1563. 

3 "Apres la declaration que seigneurs ont envoyee en Espagne des deniers 
qu'ils y ont demandez, ils ne voyant pas qu'on se haste beaucoup de leur re- 
spondre." — Ihid. 

4 Neg. Tosc, III, 492. 

5 Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VI, 620, September 13, 1563. It is 
interesting to observe the objections of Margaret of Parma and Granvella. Ac- 
cording to the former, " I'impossibilite de donner secours au roi de France etait 
notoire, a moins qu'on ne voulut la perte et la ruine totale des Pays-Bas." — 
Gachard, Philippe II et les Pays-Bas, I, 211; Margaret to Philip, August 6, from 
Brussels. The latter deplores the reduction of the forces of the country because 
"les ligues et confederations (c'est ainsi qu'on les appelle) formees contre lui, con- 
tinuent." — Ibid., August 6, 1562. Three future patriots of the Netherlands were 
in this session of the Council of State — William of Orange, Egmont and Hoorne. 
Cf. Gachard's note. 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 213 

several provincial leagues and town associations, which were the 
real roots of the Holy League. 

The people of the capital had begun to manifest their preju- 
dices in an organized military form as early as 1562, and the 
government, instead of suppressing this tendency, encouraged it. 
On May 2, 1562, the Parlement of Paris passed an ordinance 
ordering the echevins and all loyal Catholics in each quarter of the 
city to organize under arms, with captains, corporals, and sergeants.^ 
But the preponderance of Paris in the formation of the Holy 
League has been exaggerated. When it became a national affair, 
Paris, as the capital and most Catholic city of France, seized hold 
of it and made it her own. But it is inverting things to say that 
Paris gave the League to the provinces. Rather Paris identified 
herself with their interests, and reflected their passions and their 
character, "fierce in Languedoc, sullenly obstinate in Brittany, 
everywhere modified in its nature and its devotion by the politics 
of the towns. "^ 

The south of France was far more aggressive than the north in 
this particular, and anti-Protestant associations were formed in 
many provinces to the disquietude of the government, which knew 
not how to control them.^ The earliest of such local associations 
formed by the Catholics seems to have been one of Bordeaux, 
where the people were organized after the Protestant attempt to 
gain possession of the Chateau Trompette in Francis II's reign. ^ 

1 La Popeliniere, Book viii, 499); Rel. ven. II, 99. 

2 "Cependant la ligue ne s'est pas renferm.ee dans I'enceinte de Paris. Paris, 
qui I'avait incertaine et hesitante encore, la renvoya aux provinces, toute brdlante 
et toute armee. Elle s'associa a leur interets, refleta leur passions et leur caractere, 
feroce en Languedoc, durement obstinee en Bretagne, partout modifiee dans sa 
nature et sa duree par la politique locale des municipalites." — Ouvre, Essai sur 
I'histoire de la ligue a Poitiers (1855), 6. 

3 Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, 226, notices this contrast 
between the north and the south. 

4 This local organization did not seem strong enough for Montluc, whose 
activity against the Protestants in 1562 was already notable and who was sus- 
picious lest some Huguenots might creep into the body and betray it; so the power 
was taken out of the hands of the jurats of the city at his suggestion and vested in 
the hands of Tilladet, governor of Bordeaux, who also had possession of the keys 



214 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

This association formed in Bordeaux is the germ of the Catholic 
League which later expanded over the Bordelais and Gascony. 
Other portions of France followed suit. In November, 1562, the 
Association of Provence was formed at Aix and terrorized the 
Huguenots.' Toulouse was notoriously Catholic, and street wars 
between Catholics and Protestants were of common occurrence. 
A more than usually violent outburst of popular fury here culmi- 
nated on March 2, 1563, in the formation of a Cathohc League, 
of which the cardinals Armagnac and Strozzi, lieutenants of the 
King in the seneschaussees of Toulouse and Albi, the president 
of the Parlement, Du Faur, who was advocate-general of the 
crown, certain eminent knights of the Order, and the famous 
Montluc, were sponsors. The immediate occasion of this out- 
break at Toulouse seems to have been the combination of fury 
and fear of a plot which the Catholics felt when they learned of 
the duke of Guise's assassination. When the outbreak began, 
the president of the Parlement of Toulouse hastily dispatched a 
messenger to Montluc entreating him to come to their assistance. 
Upon Montluc's arrival at Toulouse the leaders prayed him to 
put himself at the head of the troops in the province against the 
Huguenots. 

Montluc at first made some difficulty about consenting to this 
request, because he had no permission from Damville, the governor 
of Languedoc, in which province Toulouse was located, and who, 
moreover, was not one of his friends.^ Finally, however, he 

of the city. This proceeding was destined to be revolutionary in the development 
of the municipality. The jurats pleaded their ancient privileges, which were as 
old as the English domination, which Louis XI had confirmed after the wars of the 
English in France were over. But the parlement of Bordeaux approved the change 
and thus the form of government of the greatest city of the Gironde was altered by 
stress of circumstances (O'Reilly, Hist, de Bordeaux, II, 241-44; ISIontluc, 
Letires et commentaires, IV, 214, note). Cf. Gaullieur, Histoire de la reformation a 
Bordeaux et dans le ressort du parlement de Guyenne. Tome I, "Les origines et 
la premiere guerre de religion jusqu'a la paix d'Amboise" (1523-63), Paris, 1848. 

1 "Tellement que les pauvres fideles trembloyent dans Aix et plusieurs firent 
constraints de s'enfuyr." — Mem. de. Conde, IV, 240. At p. 278 is an account of 
the formation of this league. Cf. Discours veritable des guerre et troubles advenus 
au Pays de Provence en Van 1562. 

2 This was Henri Damville, the second son of the constable Montmorency. 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 215 

yielded to their request, and measures were taken to put an army 
on foot in thirty days. Those who composed this assembly drew 
up the compact of a league or association on March 2, 1563, which 
was to be observed by the clergy, the nobility, and the third estate 
in the towns and dioceses within the jurisdiction of the parlement 
of Toulouse, both in Languedoc and Guyenne. According to 
the articles of this association the members engaged to bear arms, 
and to make oath between the hands of those commissioned by 
the Parlement, or by the King's lieutenant in the country, to march 
whenever required for the defense of the Catholic rehgion. The 
parlement of Toulouse approved and authorized this association 
on March 20, provisionally and without charges, "subject to the 
good pleasure of the King." In the name of this league taxes 
were laid, men were levied, and an inventory of arms made in 
every generalite and diocese. "^ 

Montluc had come to Toulouse, fresh from the formation of 
another and earher league for the preservation of the Catholic faith, 
in Agen, which had been organized on February 4, 1563. This 
league was a direct consequence of the siege of Lectoure and the 
battle of Vergt. Montluc had received orders to report, with the 
marshal Termes, to the King in the camp before Orleans. But 
the Agenois was not quite pacified and the gentry of the country 
were so filled with alarm, that they concluded, so Montluc naively 
says, "that in case I should resolve to go away to the King, as his 
Majesty commanded, and offer to leave them without a head, 
they must be fain to detain me in the nature of a prisoner."^ The 
upshot of things was that the "Confederation and Association of 
the town and city of Agen and other towns and jurisdictions of 

1 This association, in the words of D'Aubigne, was the "prototype et premier 
example de toutes les ligues qui ont despuis paru en France." — Vol. II, 137. Ex- 
tended accounts of its origin may be found in the Annates de Toulouse, II, 62 ff.; 
De Thou, IV, Book XXXIV, 496, 497; La Popeliniere, Book VIII, 602, gives the 
text of the compact, which shows the financial measures adopted in the support of 
the league; Lettres et commentaires de Monttuc, ed. De Ruble, II, 398; Hist, du 
Languedoc, V, 249 ff. Protestant accounts are in Beza, Book X; D'Aubigne, 
III, chap, xviii. 

2 Commentaires (Eng. trans.). Book V, 232. 



2i6 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Agen" was formed and organized on February 4, 1563, with a 
captain, lieutenant, sergeants, corporals, and other necessary 
officers, in order to extirpate the Huguenots from the region. It 
was an oath-bound covenant.' 

The examples of Agen and Toulouse were contagious, and 
the popular hatred of the Huguenots, on account of the assassina- 
tion of the duke of Guise, induced the spread of these local leagues. 
On March 13, 1563, the CathoHc lords of Guyenne also entered 
into a league at Cadillac on the same plan and for the same object 
as that of the Catholics of Agen and Languedoc.^ Like the earlier 
ones, the league of Guyenne was organized by parishes, districts, 
seneschaussees and provinces, under the direction of one supreme 
chief assisted by a council chosen from the third estate. In the 
north of France, as has been observed, the tendency of the Catho- 
lics to associate was not so strong as in the south. There is evi- 
dence of a weak association of the Cathohcs in the towns of the 
Rouennais and the lower part of the Ile-de-France in 1563,^ and 
of a town league in Anjou and Maine.'* But no formidable Catho- 
lic association was formed north of the Loire, until the appear- 
ance of the Confrerie du St. Esprit in 1568, under the marshal 
Tavannes. 

The nucleus of many of these Cathohc associations, before 
they expanded into provincial leagues, in most cases seems to have 
been a local guild or confraternity^ of some nature. These were 

1 "Ordonnance de Blaise de Montluc, chevalier de I'ordre et lieutenant du 
roi en Guyenne, sur I'opinion qui devoit estres les sujets fideles a sa Majeste en 
la senechaussee d'Agenois, et sur I'ordre qu'ils devoient tenir pour resister aux 
entreprises des sujets rebelles." — Ruble, Comment, et Lettres de Montluc, IV, 190; 
La Faille, Annates de Toulouse, II, 62. The preamble is a recital of Catholic 
grievances and Huguenot violence. 

2 D'Aubigne, II, 213, and n. 6; Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, IV, 214. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 1,000, anno 1563. 

4 Mourin, La rejorme et la ligue en Anjou, 21, 22. 

s It is interesting to observe how history is repeating itself in the formation of 
these local associations or confraternities against the Huguenots. In 1212 in the 
course of the war against the Albigenses the " Confraternitas ad ecclesiae defen- 
sionem Massiliae instituta" was formed at Marseilles by Arnaud, the papal legate. 
See Martene, Thesaurus anecdotorum, sub anno. 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 217 

closely connected with the body of tradesmen, each trade having 
its patron saint, its sacred banner, and devoted bands; but some 
of the more aristocratic people were joined with the artisans. The 
members had fixed places of meeting and certain days on which 
to assemble, common exercises, and often a common meal. They 
swore to use their wealth and their life, if need be, for the defense 
of their faith.' 

The new role now begun to be played by these ancient guilds 
is an interesting phase of the rehgious wars. If France in the 
sixteenth century was laboring in the throes of a rehgious revolu- 
tion, she was also in a state of industrial transformation. In 
origin the economic revolution was independent of the Reforma- 
tion, yet so influential were its social and economic effects upon 
the Reformation that in a very true sense the religious movement 
may be said to have been the subordinate one.^ The identity and 
fulness of this change in the old order of things coincides with 
the Reformation, which in large part became the vehicle of 
its expression. The crisis coincides with the reign of Charles 
IX and Henry III, although the beginnings of it are very mani- 
fest in the time of Louis XI (cf. the ordinances of 1467, 
1474-76, 1479). The change particularly involved the guilds, 
whose traditional practices had now reached the point of an 
industrial tyranny. More and more, from the middle of the 
fifteenth century, control of the guilds had tended to fall into the 
hands of a few. This growth of a social hierarchy within the 
guilds had serious political and economic results. For inasmuch 
as city government was so largely an out-growth of guild life, this 
^ exclusiveness threw political control of the cities into the hands 
of a "ring" composed of the upper bourgeoisie, who formed an 

I Martin, Histoire de France, IX, 201; Anquetil, I, 213. 

2 "Si la Reforme acquit une si grande importance, au point que les esprits 
superficiels y virent I'origine des libertes actuelles, c'est qu'auparavant avait 
eclate une revolution sociale et economique, dont les luttes religeuses ne furent 
que les arriere-maux. Tant que les historiens, dans leurs etudes sur la Reforme, 
ne tiendront pas compte de ce dernier point de vue, ils n'ecriront a son sujet que 
les romans ou des pamphlets." — Funck-Brentano, Introd. to new ed. of Mont- 
cbretien's L'CEconomie politique, LXXI. 



2i8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

oligarchy and gradually squeezed the lower classes out of all par- 
ticipation in the government. The general body of the common- 
alty everywhere, in France, in Germany, in England, tended to 
disappear or to be replaced by a select group from the inner circle 
of the guild. The lower bourgeoisie was shut out of the council 
at Nevers in 1512, at Sens in 1530, at Rheims in 1595. 

But the economic revolution implied in this change was of far 
greater importance than the political. The gens de metier became 
a monopolist, a capitalist class, controlling the "hoards" of the 
guilds as well at being the ruling class in local politics. The old 
guild was transformed into a mercantile association, operated in 
favor of a few rich families who were possessed of capital and 
regulated wages and fixed the term of apprenticeship to their own 
advantage. In order to secure cheap labor the masters increased 
the number of apprentices, lengthened the time of service, raised 
the requirements of the chej-d'ceuvre, made membership in the 
guild increasingly difficult, and reduced wages by employing raw, 
underpaid workmen in competition with skilled labor. The 
result was that the distance widened continually between the 
upper and lower working classes."^ The social democracy and 
honorable estate of guild life, as it had been in the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries, passed away and was replaced by a strife 
between labor and capital, between organized labor and free 
labor, which brings the sixteenth century, remote as it is in time, 
very near to us in certain of its economic conditions. 

To be sure there were some things which partially neutralized 
this antagonism, such as better facility in communication, the 
increase of production, the activity of exchange, the invention of 
new industrial processes, and the opening of new industries, 
notably printing and silk manufacture.^ But nothing compen- 
sated the workman for the rise in the price of necessities of life 
due to the influx of gold and silver from America, for his wages 

1 Hauser, "The Reformation and the Popular Classes in France in the Six- 
teenth Century," American Historical Review, January, 1899, 220. 

2 See Hauser, Ouvriers du temps passe; Pariset, Histoire de la jahrique lyonnaise, 
1901; Roussel, "Un livre de main au XVI^ siecle," Revue inter nationale de socio- 
logie, XIII (1905), 102, 521, 825. 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 219 

did not rise in proportion. In consequence the cleavage grew 
more and more sharp. The resuh of this tendency was that poor 
workmen, despairing of getting economic justice from the guilds, 
took to working in their own quarters. So common was this prac- 
tice in the sixteenth century that a new word was coined to define 
rhis unapprenticed class — chamhrelons. These plied their trades 
in their own houses and sold the product of their handicraft any- 
where. As early as 1457, and again in 1467, the masters complain 
of this practice.' It is easy to understand the disastrous influence 
of this new form of industry upon guild labor, since the new class 
of workmen was not subject either to the same money charges or 
to the same restrictive regulations. It was "unfair" competition 
for the old order of things which reposed upon the maintenance 
of an economic equilibrium between demand and supply, between 
labor and capital, was upset by the new tendencies. 

To the toiling masses trodden down by the masters and econom 
ically tyrannized over, the Reformation came as the first organized 
movement of discontent, and hosts of dissatisfied workmen through- 
out Germany and France hastened to identify themselves with 
Protestantism, not for rehgious reasons, but because the Reforma- 
tion constituted exactly that for which they were seeking — a pro- 
test. The situation was further aggravated by the influx of 
foreign workmen, chiefly from Germany, where this economic 
revolution was earher and more fully developed than elsewhere 
in Europe, in great industrial centers like Niirnberg, and where 
small German workmen were more completely shut out than 
was the case in France or England. These men — such as cob- 
blers, shoemakers, carpenters, wool-carders, and other simple 
artisans — wandered over the country from one province to another, 

I Eberstadt, "Der franzosische Gewerberecht und die Schaffung staatlicher 
Gesetzgebung und Verwaltung in Frankreich vom dreizehnten Jahrhundert bis 
1581," Schmoller's Forschungen, XVII, Pt. II, 270. This is a pioneer work in the 
economic subject here briefly outlined. The reader will find Unwin's Industrial 
Development in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, London, 1905, an admirable 
survey of the same subject, dealing chiefly with England, but with frequent reference 
to the continent, where the conditions were much the same. There is a copious 
bibliography prefixed to the work. The article by M. Hauser referred to in the 
American Historical Review, January, 1899, should also be examined. 



220 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

carrying the economic gospel of free labor and the religion of 
Lutheranism with them. Naturally they imbued their French 
fellow-workmen with their sentiments — and to such an extent 
that for years, during the early course of the civil wars, the 
Huguenots were commonly called "Lutherans." Before 1560, the 
greater portion of the Protestant party was made up of wool- 
combers, fullers, drapers, weavers, shoemakers, hosiers, dyers, 
tailors, hatters, joiners, glaziers, bookbinders, locksmiths, cutlers, 
pewterers, coopers, etc."" Even as late as 1572, when the Hugue- 
not movement had for twelve years been led by noblemen like 
the Chatillons and the Rohans, the Venetian ambassador still 
characterized the Huguenots as "a sect which consists for the most 
part of craftsmen, as cobblers, tailors, and such ignorant people."^ 
Coupled with this religious and economic revolution, went also 
a change in the manners of society, which pervaded all classes — 
a change which began in the reign of Francis I and was continued 
under Henry II. The new internationalism of France, due to the 
Italian wars, was probably the initial cause of this. Returned 
soldiers, laden with the pay of booty of warfare, brought back into 

1 Weiss, La chambre ardente, cxlv. The early identification of the French 
nobility with Calvinism has been exaggerated. One must be cautious in the use 
of the term "nobility," for it is to be remembered that the eldest son received the 
largest share of the inheritance and that younger sons and small nobles, in many 
instances, had much in common with the small farmers in the provinces. As 
Mr. Armstrong aptly says: "All that separated them from their neighbors was 
'privilege,' and to this they clung all the more desperately." — Armstrong, The 
French Wars of Religion, 4. In the decade between 1550 and 1560 there is an 
increase in the number of aristocratic names identified with French Protestantism, 
but it was not till 1557 that the first great noble espoused its cause and that 
covertly. This was Antoine of Bourbon. In the same year Coligny and D'Ande- 
lot also inclined to it (Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, 63-66). 
On the whole matter, see Lavisse, Histoire de France, V, Pt. II, 238-42. 

2 Relazione IV, 242. The great store-house of information on this head is 
M. Noel Weiss, La chambre ardente, 1889 — the trials for heresy during the years 
1547-49 of the reign of Henry II — a book which has revolutionized the point of 
view of the history of the French Reformation (see a review of this work in English 
Hist. Review, VI, 770). 

In the town of Provins there were but a few Huguenots. Among them were 
I doctor; 2 lawyers; a notary; i barber and surgeon; i dyer; 3 apothecaries; i 
draper; i fuller; i salt dealer. — Claude Haton, I, 124, 125. 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 221 

France the manners and customs of Italy, which commingled 
with the manners and customs introduced by wandering work- 
men from Germany and Switzerland.' 

The revision of the statutes of the guilds was one of the minor 
features of the reform programme of the political Huguenots in 
the States- General of Orleans and the Cahier- general of the third 
estate which was compiled from the local cahiers presented by 
the deputies shows traces of the interest of France at large in the 
issue. Unfortunately these fuller local records are lost.^ But this 
revision only looked to a modernizing of the mediaeval language 
of the ordonnances, which chiefly dated from the fourteenth cen- 
tury, and did not contemplate an entire recasting of them, so as 
to make them harmonize with the new industrial conditions. Only 
one man in the assembly seems to have appreciated the real con- 
dition of things. This was the chancellor L'Hopital. Not con- 
tent with the mild reorganization of the guilds recommended by 
the third estate, on the last day of the session, January 31, 1561, 
the chancellor drew up the famous ordinance of Orleans.^ The 
intent of this statute was indirectly to restrain the enlarged eco- 
nomic tyranny of the guilds, to lessen the burden of apprenticeship, 
and to establish freer laboring conditions. This purpose the gov- 

1 It would be a narrow view of the history of France at this time to infer that 
religious and economic changes were the only sort. The truth is, the reigns of 
Francis I and of Henry II, were an age of transition in religion, in institutions, even 
in manners. 

" La corruption des bonnes moeurs a continue en tous estatz, tant ecclesiastique 
que aultres, depuis les cardinaux jusques aux simples prebstres, et depuis le roy 
jusques aux simples villagloix. Chascun a voulu suyvre son plaisir; on a delaisse 
mesne I'ancienne coustume de s'habiller. De temps immemorial, nul homme da 
France n'avoit este tondu ni porte longue barbe avant le regne dudit feu roy; ains 
tous les hommes, garfons et campagnons portoient longs cheveux et la barbe rasee 

au menton Les prebstres et evesques se sont faict tondre des derniers; 

et ont porte longue barbe, ce qui a este trouve fort estranger depuis le commence- 
ment du regne dudit feu roy, ont commence les nouvelles fafons aux habillemens 
toutes contraires a I'antiquite, et a semble la France estre ung nouveau peuple ou 
ung monde renouvele." — Claude Haton, I, 112. 

2 The cahier of the estates of Orleans was published at the eve of the French 
Revolution (Recueil des cahiers generaux des trois ordres, chap. i). 

3 Isambert, XIV, 63 ff. 



222 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

ernment aimed to attain by dissolving the confraternities, for by 
striking at these it really struck the guilds, since many of these 
associations were one and the same. No distinction was made 
between associations whose character was rehgious or charitable, 
and those composed of patrons and workingmen; all the confra- 
ternities were grouped together and governmental supervision 
was provided for. They were not legislated out of existence by 
the new action, but reduced to a partial dissolution. Their accu- 
mulated hoards of capital were ordered to be expended for the 
support of schools and hospitals and similar institutions in the 
towns and villages where these various guilds were, and only a 
limited amount of money was left in their hands. The municipal 
officers, in co-operation with those of the crown were made per- 
sonally responsible for the execution of this measure in every 
b)ailiwick. It is important to notice the significance of this course. 
The government, in fact, was pursuing a policy of partial seculari- 
zation of the property of these confraternities for the benefit of 
the people at large, and compelling distribution of the great sums 
locked up in the hands of the guilds in much the same way that 
the church had come to possess enormous sums in mortmain. 
This legislation, if it had really been effective, would have destroyed 
the guilds. 

The guilds thus put upon the defensive, owing to the reforming 
policy of the crown and the political Huguenots, sought to save 
themselves by pleading that they were rehgious associations. By 
this adroit movement they gained the support of the Catholic 
party. But the crown refused to yield, and we find the Conjreries 
de metiers directly supervised in letters-patent of February 5, 1562, 
and December 14, 1565. Coupled with these measures, we find 
others forbidding banquets, festivals, and like celebrations (edicts 
of December 11, 1566, and of February 4, 1567) which by this 
time had become centers of rehgious agitation among the CathoHcs. 
But the government could not maintain its course. The identi- 
fication of the guilds and confraternities with the Cathohc party 
gave them great and unexpected support. Under the new order 
of things they became the nuclei of local and provincial Cathohc 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 223 

leagues.^ In other words, the labor party became identified with 
the Huguenots, while the upper bourgeoisie, controlling the guilds, 
adhered to the Catholic cause — at Rouen in 1560 the merchants 
actually declared a lock-out against workmen who attended 
preachings^ — and became the nuclei of the provincial leagues, 
exactly as in France in 1793 every Jacobin club became an arm 
of the Terror government. 

It was said at the time, and has often been asserted since, that 
these local Catholic leagues were but protective associations in the 
beginning and formed to repel Huguenot violence.^ The Hugue- 
nots practiced as violent methods as their religious opponents 
and their offenses were as numerous; but with the exception of 
the Huguenot association in Dauphine, there is no early example 
of a Protestant association similar to the leagues of the Catholics 

1 I am indebted for much of this information to M. Henri Hauser, "Les 
questions industrielles et commercielles aux Etats de 1560," Revue des cours, 
XIII, No. 6, December 15, 1904. Cf. Funck-Brentano, Introd. to Montchretien, 
Traicte de Vwconomie politique, LXXIV-VI. 

2 Hauser, "The Reformation and the Popular Classes in France in the Six- 
teenth Century," American Historical Review, January 1899, p. 223. "The trade- 
unions fell under the sway of the religious brotherhoods, which excluded the non- 
Catholics and were soon to lead the revolutionary movement of the League." — 
Ihid., 227. 

3 "L'origine des ligues en ce royaume vient des Huguenots." — Tavannes, 
222; Martin, Histoire de France, IX, 125. 

"En face des Protestants, qui s'associaient et s'organisaient contre les catho- 
liques, ceux-ci avaient de bonne heure forme des unions locales pour resister aux 
entreprises des heretiques. Ces premieres ligues ont seulement un but religieux. 
Elles sont generalement composes de bourgeois devoue a la royaute et sincerement 
emus des dangers auxquels est expose la catholic isme." — La grande encyc, XXII, 
234, s. V. "Ligue," article by M. de Vaissiere. 

"La jalousie entre les deux Religions ne se borna pas I'emulation d'une plus 
grande regularite; elles chercherent s'appuyer I'une contre I'autre de la force des 
confederations et des serments. Depuis long-temps la Romaine entretenoit dans 
son sein des associations connues sous le nom de confreries. Elles avoient des 
lieux et des jours d'assemfilee fixes, une police, des repas, des exercices, des deniers 
communs. II ne fut question que d'ajouter a ce la un serment d'employer ses 
bieris et sa vie pour la defense de la Foi attaquee. Avec cette formula, les con- 
freries devinrent comme d'elles-memes, dans chaque ville, des corps de troupes 
pretes a agir au gre des chefs, et leur bannieres, des etendarts militaires." — An- 
quetil, I, 213. 



224 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

in the provinces. The Protestant local organizations were not so 
highly developed, in a military sense, as early as this, nor were they 
of the same form as those of the Catholics. Montluc himself, than 
whom there is no better judge, testifies that in the war in Guy- 
enne in 1562 "they showed themselves to be novices, and indeed 
they were guided by their ministers." The Protestants had a 
sort of triumvirate, it is true, in the two Chatillon brothers, and 
the prince of Conde, but their work only remotely partakes of the 
policy of the real Triumvirate; even their appeal to Elizabeth 
did not contemplate such radical conduct as the Triumvirate 
displayed.^ 

No Huguenot leader ever thought of subordinating the govern- 
ment of France to a foreign ruler for the maintenance of the faith 
he beHeved in,^ as the Guises, Montmorency, and St. Andre did. 
Conde's declaration that the civil war was caused by the Trium- 
virate's action had much truth in it. The rules of the association 
which the Huguenots formed at Orleans, on April 11, 1562, were 
as much a body of military regulations for the discipline of the 
army as they were a political compact, as a reading of the articles 
will prove.3 There was little of the pohtico-mihtary character of 

1 Coligny expressly denied having made any promise to return Calais to 
England, and as to the occupation of Havre, he said: "J'en ignorais les termes 
jusqu'a la venue de Throckmorton en Normandie, et lorsque j'en ai signe la con- 
firmation, je n'ai jamais pu croire qu'il y eut autre clause que I'assurance donnee 
a la reine du remboursement des sommes qu'elle nous avangait." — Correspondance de 
Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., xiii. See the extended discussion of this con- 
troverted subject in Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, Appendix I, where he shows 
that the admiral is to be exonerated from the odium of having sought to betray 
Havre-de-Grace into the hands of the English and puts the blame for this article of 
the treaty of Hampton Court upon the vidame de Chartres. 

2 The conduct of La Rochelle in the fourth civil war is the most pronounced 
instance of Huguenot willingness to subordinate French territory to a foreign 
domination and this action was of the municipality, not of a single Huguenot 
leader, nor did it, of course, imply the subjection of the government of France to 
English rule as the Triumvirate contemplated in the case of Spain. 

3 Mem. de Conde, IV, 93: "Traicte d' Association faicte par Monseigneur 
le Prince de Conde avec les Princes, Chevaliers de I'Ordre, Seigneurs, Capitaines, 
Gentilhommes et autres de tous estats, qui sont entrez, ou entreront cy-apres, en la 
dicte association, pour maintenir I'honneur de Dieu, le repos de ce royaume, et 
I'estat et liberte du Roy sous le gouvernement de la Roy sa mere." 

The third article provides for implicit obedience to the prince of Conde, "chef 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 225 

the Catholic leagues about it. It is not until after the Bayonne 
episode that we find a solid federation of the Reformed churches 
beginning to form, and the first test of the Protestant organization 
was made at the beginning of the second civil war.^ This is not 
the place, however, to dwell upon its development. In due time 
the subject will be taken up. 

The edict confirming the act of pacification (March 19, 1563) 
in its sixth article forbade the formation of any leagues in the 
future, and ordered the dissolution of those already in existence.^ 
This prohibition was a dead letter from the beginning. The 
government not only was unable to prevent the formation of new 
leagues ; it was even unable to suppress those already in exist ence.^ 
When the first civil war ended, there were three well-organized 
Catholic leagues in southern France, namely those of Provence, 
of Toulouse, and of Agen. Catherine de Medici, who, for some 
months to come, continued to give substantial manifestation of 
her desire for peace,'^ in announcing the act of Amboise to Montluc, 

et conducteur de toute la Compagnie," i. e., the army; there was no league. Minute 
regulations follow for the government of the camp, for services of prayer both 
morning and evening, etc. The fourth article, which has to do with the ways and 
means of raising revenue, is the nearest approach to political organization: 
". . . . nous jurons and promettons devant Dieu et ses Anges nous tenir prests de 
tout ce qui fait en nostre pouvoir, comme d'argent; d'armes, chevaux de service, 
et toutes les autres choses requises, pour nous trouver au premier Mandement du 
diet Seigneur Prince." — Mem. de Conde, III, 210-15. Cf. La Popeliniere, Book 
VIII, 582 ff., upon the same subject. 

1 In 1567 when the Huguenot chiefs tried to seize Charles IX by surprise at 
Meaux, thus precipitating the second civil war, the Venetian ambassador, Correro, 
expressed astonishment at the perfection of the Huguenot organization (Rel. ven., 

n, 115). 

2 Edit de confirmation de I'edit de pacification du 19 Mars 1562, sec. 6: "Nous 
.... prohibons et defendons, sur peine de crime de leze-majeste a tous nos dits 
sujets, quels qu'ils soient, qu'ils n'ayent a faire practique, avoir intelligence, en- 
voyer ne recevoir lettres ne messages, escrire en chiff^re n'autre escriture feincte, 
ne desguisee, a princes estrangers, ne aucuns de leur subjects et serviteurs, pour 
chose concernant nostre estat sans nostre sceu et expres conge et permission."— 
Isambert, Recueil des lots, XIV, 145; the "Ordonnance explicative" of April 7 
is on p. 333; cf. Mem. de Conde, IV, 311; La Popeliniere, Book X, 724. 

3 We find repeated orders for their dissolution, e. g., F. Fr. 15,876, fol. 201. 

4 Lettres-patentes of Charles IX extended the right of Protestant worship to 
Condom, St. Severe, and Dax, towns which did not figure in the edict of March 19 



226 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

demanded the dissolution of these associations. Instead of so 
doing, however, Candalle, Montluc's chief agent in Guyenne, 
continued his activities. On March 13, 1563, as has been noticed, 
in defiance of the impending edict of pacification (which was 
completed and only awaited promulgation) the Catholic seig- 
neurs of Guyenne, at Cadillac (near Bordeaux) entered into a 
league identical in purpose and in form with those of Agen 
and Languedoc' This league, which is the germ of that 
which spread over Gascony, seems to have been denounced 
to the government by Lagebaston, the president of the par- 
lement of Bordeaux, between whom and Montluc there was 
friction, partly because of Montluc's preference for Agen as a 
working capital for the region, partly because of his notorious dis- 
like of the lawyer class, whose disposition to regard forms of law 
and vested right interfered with Montluc's high-handed and 
arbitrary management of affairs.^ This new league in such 
glaring violation of the edict, called forth a sharp letter of rebuke 
from the queen mother to Montluc on March 31. After alluding 
in a general way to "les maulx" due to the existence of "les par- 
tiahtez et les associations, qui se sont faictes" she says : 

J'ay este advertye qu'il s'en est faicte line autre en la Guyenne dont est chef 
Monsieur de Candalle, laquelle encores qu'elle ayt este faicte a bonne intention 
durant la guerre, si n'est-ce que, cessant la dicte guerre et se faisant la paix, 
elle n'est plus necessaire et ne la peult ung roy trouver bonne, ny que ceulx 
qui veullent estre estimez obeyssans ne peuvent soustenir sans encourir le 
mesme cryme de rebellion dont ilz ont accuse leurs adversaires. Et pour 
ceste cause, et que le Roy monsieur mon filz n'est pas delibere d'en souffrit 
plus aucun, de quelque coste qu'elle procedde ny permectre plus a ses sub- 
jectz, de quelque religion qu'ilz soient, d'avoir autre association qu'avec luy 

(Ruble, Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, IV, 257, 272, and notes). A royal 
ordinance was later issued giving a list of those towns where Calvinist worship was 
permitted, specifying that it must be conducted in the faubourgs, however {Mem. 
de Conde, IV, 338). 

1 Within a month the government received anonymous information of Can- 
dalle's activity {Archives de la Gironde, XXI, 14 [April 16, 1563]). Cf. "Lettre 
de Candalle a la reine, du mai 20, 1563 (F. Fr. 15,875, fol. 495). In the same 
volume, fol. 491, is a joint declaration of the gentlemen of Guyenne upon the pur- 
poses of this association. 

2 Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, IV, 214. 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 227 

et selon son obdyssance, il fault, Monsieur de Monluc, que, pour le bien de son 
service, comme il le vous'commande express^ment par ses lettres, que vous, 
qui estes son lieutenant-general par dela, faciez rompre celle qui s'est faicte 
sans permectre qu'ilz ayent aucune force, puissance ou authority que celle que 
vous leur baillerez, ny aucune voluntd que d'obeyr a ce que par vous, pour 
le bien du service du Roy monsieur mon filz, leur sera commande; pour lequel 
effect j'en scriptz, comme faict le Roy monsieur mon filz, une lectre audit 
si" de Candalle et a tons ceulx qui y sont comprins, comme nous en avons este 
bien amplement advertiz.' 

Until the ambition of the Guises created an opposition to them 
among the old-hne nobihty, and so identified the Huguenot move- 
ment with the interests of the aristocracy,^ the French Reformation 
found its chief support among the lower bourgeois class in the 
towns. The proportion naturally varied from place to place. 
Lyons, partly from its proximity to Geneva, but more because of 
its strong commercial position and its great manufacturing inter- 
ests, among which the silk industry was of most importance, was 
the greatest Huguenot city in France. ^ Where we find Protes- 
tantism prevailing in feudal districts, it is largely to be ascribed to 

1 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, I, 552, col. 2. At the same time 
Catherine wrote to certain members of the Parlement of Bordeaux. Montluc's 
reply, both the personal letter he wrote to the queen mother (April 11), and the 
more official remonstrance he forwarded to the King, is a palpable lie. He wrote 
to the queen "Je vous puis asseurer .... que despuis la nouvelle de la paix. il 
n'y a eu traicte d'association aucune; que, au moindre mot que j'en ay diet, tout ne 
soit cesse comme s'il n'en avoit jamais este parle." — Commentaires et lettres, IV, 
206. Cf. his similar declaration to Charles IX, on p. 214. The clergy of Bordeaux 
sustained Montluc in this deception, and when the queen's suspicion continued, 
justified the association on the ground of religion. Corresp. de Catherine de Med., 
I, 552, note. Candalle in a letter of May 20, 1563, still evaded the truth in writing 
to the queen (F. Fr., 15,876, fol. 495), and Catherine, upon more suspicious informa- 
tion from d'Escars, determined to satisfy herself of certain facts, and sent two 
commissioners to Guyenne to secure better information (Commentaires et lettres 
de Montluc, IV, 270, note). Unfortunately for the government, the Parlement of 
Bordeaux resented their coming as an invasion of their jurisdiction, and the inquiry 
degenerated into a quarrel between the Parlement and the commissioners {ibid., 
IV, 292, n. i; Corresp. de Catherine de Medicis, II, 114, 115). 

2 Claude Haton, I, 266. 

3 "A Lyon, les catholiques y sont pour le jour d'huy en plus grand nombre 
des troiz partz pour une que les huguenotz; mais les dits huguenotz sont les prin- 
cipaulx et ceulx qui ont les forces en mains." — Granvella to the emperor Ferdinand 
I, April 12, 1564, Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 467. 



228 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the influence of Protestant gentleman-farmers, often retired bour- 
geois, who purchased the county estates of the older nobility who had 
been bankrupted by the wars in Italy and Flanders, or else preferred 
to live at court. The strongholds of French Protestantism were 
the river towns, on the highways of trade, or sea-ports like Rouen 
and La Rochelle. Dauphine, which fattened on the commerce out 
of Italy through the Alpine passes, and Provence which bordered 
the Mediterranean, both of which "cleared" through Lyons; 
Lower Poitou,whereLa Rochelle was, andNormandyon the Channel 
were the chief Protestant provinces of France. Normandy was 
probably the most Protestant province of all, for here Calvinism 
not only obtained in the ports and "good" towns, but in the coun- 
try areas as well.^ 

But there are evidences of the penetration of Protestantism 
into the country districts elsewhere as well — in Orleannais, Niver- 
nais, Blesois, the diocese of Nirnes and even in isolated parts of 
Champagne and Gascony.^ In general, however, the French 
peasantry were strongly Catholic. 

The reason for this is, first, a social one: while the revolution of the fif- 
teenth and sixteenth centuries was ruinous for the artisan, it was profitable to 
the peasant. The rent paid to the landlord, immutably fixed in the twelfth 
or thirteenth century, represented under the new values of money a very light 
burden, while the fall in the price of silver considerably raised the nominal 
worth of the products of the soil, when the villein sold them. The price of 
land was falling rapidly at the very time when the French gentry, ceasing to be 

1 The coast trade with England and Holland probably explains the prevalence 
of Protestantism in Lower Normandy, at least in part. But the reasons of the 
prevalence of rural Huguenotism on an extensive scale in Normandy are quite 
obscure. On this subject see La Ferriere, Normandie a I'etranger, 2-5, 82; Hauser, 
"The French Reformation and the French People in the Sixteenth Century," 
American Historical Review, January 1899, 225, 226. 

2 Hauser, op. cit., 226, 227. I find in Montluc an interesting allusion to the 
prevalence of the Reformed belief among the peasantry of Guyenne, which M. 
Hauser has not noticed. It occurs in a letter of "Instruction au cappitaine Monluc 
[Pierre-Bertrand, called captain Peyrot] de ce qu'il dira a la royne et au roy de 
Navarre, de la part du sieur de Monluc, touchant I'etat de Guyenne," March 25, 
1561, and is as follows: "Et ce, a cause des insollences, scandalles et contemne- 
ments que les paisans dudit pais leur ont faict depuis ung an en ca," etc. — Com- 
mentaires et lettres de Montluc, IV, 115. 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 229 

an aristocracy of gentlemen -farmers and becoming a court -nobility, were com- 
pelled to sell their estates to meet their expenses and, as was said, to put their 
mills and meadows on their shoulders. When a lord wished to sell at any 
price a part of his estates, there was always, in the parish, a countryman who 
had been, as one may say, saving money for centuries, and who, realizing at 
last the dream of bygone generations, bought land. Thus did the French 
villein become a landowner. The reign of Louis XII and the beginning of 
that of Francis I was for the French peasants an epoch of real prosperity; his 
situation presented a striking contrast with that of the German peasant who, 
at the same date, was in danger of relapsing into bondage. We may easily 
understand why there was not in France, as in Germany, a peasants' revolu- 
tion both social and religious.^ 

But there are other reasons for the rehgious growth of the 
Huguenot cause among the people not so hard to find. Their 
ministers preached in the French language and avoided the use 
of Latin, which tended to mystery and obscurity; after sermons 
the service was continued with prayer and the singing of psalms 
in French rhyme, with vocal and instrumental music in which 
the congregation joined. In their church pohty, the Huguenots 
had carried changes farther than had the Reformation elsewhere 
in Europe. In Germany and England the Reformation still 
adhered to many of the institutions of the mediaeval church, 
retaining the episcopate and inferior clergy, as deacons, archdea- 
cons, canons, curates, together with vestures, canonical habits, 
and the use of ornaments.^ 

No reliable estimate can be made of the proportion between 
Cathohcs and Huguenots in the sixteenth century. A remon- 
strance of 1562 to the Pope declared that one-fourth of France 
was separate from the communion of Rome.^ The Venetian 

1 Hauser, "The French Reformation and the French People in the Sixteenth 
Century," American Hist. Review, January 1899, 224. For further information 
upon this change in the condition of the lower and middle classes in France in the 
sixteenth century see Avenel, "La fortune mobiliere dans I'histoire," Revue des 
deux mondes, August i, 1892, pp. 605, 606; idem, " La propriete fonciere de Philippe- 
Auguste a Napoleon," Revue des deux mondes, February i, 1893, pp. 128, 129; 
April 15, 1893, PP- 796, 797. 801-3, 812, 813; August 15, 1893, pp. 853-55; Lavisse, 
Histoire de France, V, Pt. I, 262-65. 

2 Remonstrance sent to the Pope out of France, C. S. P. For., No. 1453 (1562). 

3 Ihid. 



230 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

ambassador thought "hardly a third part of the people heretical" 
in 1567.' The echevins of Amiens declared three-quarters of 
the inhabitants of Amiens were Protestant in the same year.^ 
Charles IX in a remonstrance to Pius IV asserted that a fourth 
part of France was Protestant. ^ Montluc, no mean observer, 
estimated that one-tenth of the population of Guyenne was Prot- 
estant/ If this proportion be applied to France at large, the 
Huguenots would have numbered something like 1,600,000, Beza, 
who presided over the synod of La Rochelle in 1571, claimed that 
the Huguenots had 2,150 congregations, some of them very large, 
as in the case of the church of Orleans, which was said to have 
7,000 members. At the time of the Colloquy of Poissy, Normandy 
was said to have 305 pastors, Provence 60.^ But the number of 
Huguenots in Normandy, Provence, or the Orleannais was excep- 
tionally large. The average congregation must have been small. 
If we assume that the population of France was sixteen milHons^ 
and that one-tenth of the people were Calvinist, we would have 
a total of 1,600,000 Protestants for all France, which would give 
an average of about 750 members to each congregation on the ba- 
sis of Beza's statement as to the number of the Huguenot churches. 
This is certainly much too high a figure. Personally I believe the 
average was less than half of this. If the congregation averaged 
400 members each, on Beza's calculation there would have been 

1 Rel. ven., II, 121. 

2 Du Bois, La ligue: documents relatijs a la Picardie d'apres les registres de 
V echevinage d' Amiens (1859), 5. 

3 Mem. de Conde, II, 812. 

4 Montluc, Letter 48, March 25, 1561, Comment, et lettres, IV, 115. "Cette 
appreciation de Montluc est digne d'etre signalee a cause de sa conformite absolue 
avec les conclusions de I'erudition actuelle. On admit generalement que le parti 
protestant, a I'epoque meme de sa plus grande force, n'a jamais compte plus de 
dixieme de la population en France." — Note appended by M. de Ruble. 

s Synodicon in Gallia, I, lix. 

6 A Venetian syndicate interested in France in 1566 estimated the population 
to be between fifteen and sixteen millions {Rel. ven.. Ill, 149). I assume this 
estimate to be more reliable than most. According to Levasseur, economically 
France could support a population of 20,000,000 in the sixteenth century (Foville, 
"La population franjaise," Revue des deux mondes, November 15, 1891, 306). 



LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 231 

860,000 Huguenots in France. A Venetian source of the year 
1562 sets the number at 600,000.^ This may be too low, but all 
things considered, I believe it not far from the truth. The total 
Protestant population of France I do not believe to have exceeded 
three-quarters of a milKon before 1572, and after that date it is 
often difficult to distinguish between Huguenots and Politiques. 
Such was the state of things when the first civil war came to an end. 

I C. S. P. For., No. 935, §4, March 14, 1562. 



CHAPTER X 
THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES.^ THE BAYONNE EPISODE 

"I am always en voyage,^'' wrote the Venetian ambassador to 
the senate. "Since the beginning of my embassy the King has 
not staid more than fifteen days in any one place. He goes from 
Lorraine to Poitou, and then to Normandy and the edge of Belgium, 
back again to Normandy, then to Paris, Picardy, Champagne, 
Burgundy."^ Dr. Dale wrote in the same strain to Lord Burgh- 
ley: "The Spanish ambassador has a saying that ambassadors 
in France are eaten up by their horses, since they are constrained 
to keep so many because of the habit of the court of moving 
from place to place continually."^ 

But there was point to Charles IX's famous tour of the prov- 
inces in 1564-66. The unsettled condition of the country, if 
no other reason, accounts for Catherine's great design of completing 
the pacification of the kingdom by having the King tour the realm. 
The route lay through Sens'^ (March 15) to Troyes (March 23)^ 
where the peace with England was signed on April 13; thence 
to Chalons-sur-Marne, Bar-le-Duc, Dijon (May 15), Macon 
(June 8), and thence to Lyons, where the court arrived on June 
13. The King traveled with his ordinary train, that is, with his 
mother, his brother, the duke of Anjou, the constable, and the 
archers of the guard, in order to spare the people the burden of 

I Upon the details of this famous tour see Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, 
II, Introd., xlv ff.; D'Aubigne, Book IV, chap iv; Jouan, Voyage du rot Charles IX, 
new ed.; L'Ambassade de Si. Sulpice, 243, 254, 255, 270, 272, 274-76, 287, 300, 319. 

2 Rel. ven., I, io8. 

3 C. S. P. For., No, 43, March 7, 1574. 

4 "Entree du roy Charles IX et de la reyne-mere Catherine de Medicis en la 
ville de Sens, le 15 mars 1563," Relation extraite du MSS d'Eracle Cartault, cha- 
noine, et des deliberations de I'Hotel-de-Ville. Preface de M. H. Monceaux, 1882. 

5 Coutant, "Depenses du roi Charles IX a Troyes le mercredi 5 avril 1564 
apres Paques," Annuaire admin., etc., pour i860 (Troyes); "Depenses du 
roi Charles IX a Troyes le samedi 8 avril 1564," Annuaire admin., etc., pour 
1859 (Troyes). 

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THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 233 

great entertainment, and those princes and nobles who wished 
to follow were accompanied only by their ordinary servants.' If 
the Huguenots viewed the King's sojourn at Bar-le-Duc with 
apprehension/ it was not without anxiety that his Catholic sub- 
jects saw Charles IX visit the great city located at the junction of 
the Rhone and the Saone rivers.^ Lyons seems to have imbibed 
something of Calvinism from the very waters of the arrowy river 
whose source was the lake of the citadel of Calvinism/ The 
rumor was current that a greater conspiracy than that of Amboise 
was on foot; that the King and queen were to be deposed 
and slain, and that Lyons would unite with Geneva to form a 
greater Calvinistic republic. ^ 

But Lyons welcomed the King graciously, and gave him sumptu- 
ous accommodation.^ Charles was charmed with the reception 
given him and amazed at the wealth and commercial prosperity 
of the city.'' Situated at the confluence of the Rhone and the 

1 Claude Haton, I, 364. 

2 The visit of the King to Bar-le-Duc (to attend the baptism of the child-prince 
Henry of Lorraine) profoundly stirred the Calvinists of France and Switzerland. 
Charles IX in person, Ernest of Mansfeldt, governor of Luxembourg, repre- 
senting Philip IT, and the dowager-duchess of Lorraine, Christine of Denmark, 
acted as god-parents. 

3 Fourquevaux to St. Sulpice, May 19, 1564, L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 
266. 

4 Armstrong, French Wars of Religion, 22, admirably observes: "Geneva 
was practically a French republic, constantly recruited by raw refugee material, 
and circulating in return trained ministers and money, giving unity to measures 
which local separation was likely to dissolve. Hence came the propagandism, 
the organization for victory, the reorganization after defeat, the esprit de corps, 
the religious zeal which whipped up flagging pohtical or military energies." 

s See a letter of Alva in K. 1,502. Montluc later informed Philip II of it 
(jCommentaires et lettres, V, 25, letter of June, 1565). The rumor seems not to 
have passed unheeded, for the marshal Vieilleville cautioned the King and his 
mother to be moderate in their course, saying that the Huguenots were many and 
the soldiers few (Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 632). On the state 
of Geneva at this time see Roget, L'eglise et I'etat a Geneve du vivant de Calvin; 
etude d'histoire politico-ecclesiastique, 1867. 

6 The constable to St. Sulpice, June 21, 1564, in L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 
273- 

7 L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 275, 276; Neg. Tosc, III, 515, 516; Nyd (I'abbe) 
"Notes ecrites en 1566, a la fin d'un missel de I'abbaye de Malgrivier (evenements 



234 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Saone rivers, the wines and grain of Burgundy came to Lyons 
for market, while it was the natural entrepot of the commerce out 
of Italy, besides much that came from Spain and Flanders. There 
were four fairs there each year. The great industry of the city 
was silk manufacturing. In 1450 Charles VII had granted it 
the monopoly in this. Francis I in 1536 reheved the silk opera- 
tives of all taxes and mihtary service. The bulk of the commerce 
was in the hands of Italians, of whom there were said to be above 
twelve thousand in the city — chiefly Florentines, Genoese, and 
Milanese.^ There were also many Germans and Swiss, whose 
presence gave the governor, the duke of Nemours,^ great anxiety, 
because large quantities of arms were smuggled into the city in 
the guise of merchandise.^ 

The court had not been long upon its tour through the provinces 
before Catherine de Medici discovered that the petition of the 
estates of Burgundy for the abolition of Protestant worship was 
not merely a local prejudice, but the sense of the provinces.^ The 
elements of this public opinion were various : The clergy — not all, 
however — wanted the findings of the Council of Trent accepted 
in toto; all of them were dissatisfied with the recognition of the 
rights of the Protestants; the ahenation of their lands was a griev- 
ance to the clergy, the more so because speculators had bought 
them at a low price because of the doubt as to the validity 

rel. a Lyon, 1562-66)," Bull, du Com. de la langue, de I'hlst. et des arts de la 
France, IV, 300 (1857). The copper and lead mines of the Lyonnais had been 
profitable in the Middle Ages, but the wars of the English in France and the Black 
Death ruined the industry. See Jars, "Notice historique des mines du Lyonnais, 
Forez et Beaujolais," MS, Bibliotheque de Lyons, No. 1,470. 

1 Rel. ven., I, 35-37. 

2 A letter of his published by La Ferriere, Deux annees de mission a St. Peters- 
hour g, Paris (1867), 56, 57, casts an interesting light upon the state of the city 

at this time. 

■\ 

3 U Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 266. 

4 La Cuisine, Histoire du parlement de Bourgogne, I, 60; Castelnau, Book V, 
chap, vi, says the petition was printed. The bishop of Orleans, Jean de Morvil- 
liers, in a letter dated August 21, 1563, called the queen mother's attention to this 
growing prejudice (Fremy, Les diplomates de la Ligue, 30-32). 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 235 

of the title.' The Guises were angry that the prosecution 
of CoHgny for the murder of the duke had been abandoned.^ 
Among high and low ahke there were unprincipled folk who had 
hopes of profiting by confiscations and forfeitures imposed upon 
the Huguenots. 3 

The queen mother was too good a politician not to pay heed 
to these signs of popular feeling, more especially as the voice of 
the provinces chimed with those in high authority, who not 
only urged that the war be renewed against the Protestants but 
also hinted broadly of foreign support in aid of the crown. At 
first Catherine answered graciously, yet guardedly, to the effect 
that a peace which had been so solemnly made, by the advice of 
the princes of the blood and the council, could not be too Hghtly 
cast aside. 

The miserable effects of the war were everywhere evident. 
Agriculture had almost ceased in a country famous for its fertihty, 
and the whole country had been so plundered and harassed by 
both parties that the poor people, being stripped of all their sub- 
stance, often preferred to fly to the forests rather than to remain 
continually exposed to the mercy of their enemies. Wandering 
soldiers and dissolute women, with stolen goods in their possession, 
infested the roads. "^ As to trade and manufacturing, the mechanic 
arts still were plied only in the largest and strongest towns; even 
here merchants and tradesmen had shut up shop and gone off 
to war, not always out of religious zeal, but in the hope of enriching 
themselves by spoliation. The nobility were divided; the clergy 
incensed. The civil war had been accompanied by the attendant 
aids of violence, robbery, murder, rape, and justice had not been 

1 L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 129-31. Philip II, as has been observed, ex- 
pressed his disapproval of this practice (ibid., 152), and when the French government 
endeavored to make it apply to the property of the French church in the Low- 
Countries, he set his foot down hard (ibid., 188). An endeavor was made to restrain 
speculation in church property by law. 

2 For details see ibid., 152, 156, 165, 185, 186, 226. 

3 Castelnau, Book V, chaps, vi and x is very clear in the statement of various 
motives. 

4 Claude Haton, I, 368. 



236 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

administered in the courts for months. The very methods resorted 
to for the preservation of religion rendered it hateful in the eyes 
of many men of both parties. Both parties were bigoted in belief and 
in practice. The iconoclasm of the Protestants, who tore down 
church edifices hoary with age and sanctified by tradition, expelling 
the inmates, both male and female, if doing them no worse in- 
jury, familiarized society with changes wrought by violence and 
made the people callous to one of the most precious possessions 
of a nation^ — a. reverence for tradition.' 

To all these difficulties the prevalence of the plague must be 
added. Since the century of the Black Death Europe had not 
so suffered from this scourge as in the sixteenth. It recurred 
intermittently, being especially violent in the years 1531, 1533, 
1544, 1546, 1548, i553> 1562-64, 1568, 1577-80.^ No part of 
Europe was spared. France, England, Spain, the Low Countries, 
Germany, and Italy, all suffered. But certain portions of France 
suffered more than others, as Bas-Languedoc, Provence, the Lyon- 
nais. Burgundy, Champagne, the Ile-de-France, and Normandy. 
The west and especially the southwest were relatively exempt. 
Apparently the disease followed the trades-routes along the river 
valleys, for Toulouse, Lyons, Chalons-sur-Saone, Macon, Chalons- 
sur-Marne, Langres, Bourges, La Charite, Orleans, Tours, Mou- 
hns. Sens, Melun, Dijon, Troyes, Chateau- Thierry, Soissons, 
Beauvais, Pontoise, Paris, Rouen, and the Norman ports suffered 
most.3 As always, Italy was the immediate source of the epidemic, 
which was communicated from place to place by the movements 

^ See the wonderful word-picture drawn by Castelnau at the beginning of 
Book V, and Montluc, Books V, VI, passim. For the brigandage that prevailed 
see Montluc, IV, 343 (letter to the King from Agen, March 26, 1564). 

2 Franklin, "La vie d'autrefois," Hygiene, chap, ii, especially pp. 67-75. 
For the plague of 1563-64 in Languedoc see Hist, de Languedoc, XI, 447 (Toulouse), 
464 (Montpellier, Nimes, Castres, etc.). It was at its height in July, 1564. 
It seems to have come into Languedoc from Spain. See also Papiers d'etat du 
card, de Granvelle (March 11, 1564), VII, 387, 401; VIII, 36, 382, 470; C. S. P. 
For. (1564), Introd., xi-xii, and Nos, 544-53, §2; No. 592; Claude Haton I, 332. 
Those exposed to the infection were required to carry white wands as a sign (C. 5. P. 
Ven., No. 824, November 20, 1580). 

3 Claude Haton, I, 332. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 237 

of trade. Lyons paid dearly for its commercial pre-eminence, 
for the ravages of the plague were terrible there.' It was at its 
height when the court was there in July, 1564. The English 
ambassador, Smith, gives a fearful picture of the state of the city. 
Men died in the street before his lodgings. His servant who 
went daily for his provisions sometimes saw ten and twelve corpses, 
some naked, lying in the streets where they lay till "men clothed 
in yellow" removed them. A great many bodies were cast into 
the river, "because they will not be at the cost to make graves. 
This day," he writes on July 12, "from break of day till ten o'clock 
there laid a man naked in the street, groaning and drawing his 
last breath, not yet dead. Round the town there are tents of the 
pestiferous, besides those which are shut up in their houses."^ 
Almost every third house was closed because of the plague. The 
city authorities vainly tried to combat the disease by providing 
that visits were to be made twice a day by those appointed; but 
as there were but five "master surgeons" in the whole city, medical 
attention must have been shght. Persons afifected with the plague 
were to be removed to the hospital — the oldest and one of the best 
in Europe at that time. Corpses were to be buried at night and 
the clothes of the dead burned. ^ "About the Rhone men dare 
eat no fish nor fishers lay their engines and nets, because instead 
of fish they take up the pestiferous carcasses which are thrown 
in." New sanitary regulations were made. All filth was to be 
cast into the river and not allowed to pollute the streets or the river 
banks. Fires of scented wood were kept burning between every 
ten houses in the street. Pigs and other animals were not allowed 
at large. Meat, fish, and vegetable stalls were to be inspected 
and all decayed provisions destroyed. "^ 

It is interesting to observe the efforts made by local authorities 
to prevent the spread of the disease and the relief measures that 

I Vingtrinier, La peste a Lyon, 1901. 
- C. S. P. For., No. 553 (1564). 

3 On the state of medical science at this time see Franklin, "La vie d'autrefois," 
Hygiene, chap, ii; cf. C. S. P. For., No. 544, July i, 1564 (summary of a pamphlet 
printed by the city authorities). 

4 Claude Haton, I, 224-28. 



238 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

were taken. As soon as the plague was discovered, the town 
authorities usually set guards to watch the houses of those stricken 
and appointed barbers and gravediggers to treat ill and to inter 
the dead. These attendants were supported and paid by a tax 
laid upon the town. Those who were ill were sent to a house 
of isolation appointed to be a hospital, which was often upon the 
walls of the town, remote from the people. In Provins the church 
and cemetery were immediately adjacent to the hospital! The 
mortahty was great. In Provins in 1562 there were eighty persons 
stricken, of whom sixty died, among them four of the attendants. 
Two of the barber- surgeons refused to serve and were proceeded 
against by the town bailiff and were hanged in effigy because 
the principals in the case had made their escape. Diseased houses 
were sprinkled with perfumes and aromatic herbs were burned 
in them in order to purify them.' As always, the dislocation of 
society and the depravation of morals worked havoc in the com- 
munity. Crimes of violence were common.^ 

Little by Httle, however, this picture of misery faded into the 
background of the queen's mind and the question of political 
expediency, which was always the lodestar of her policy, became 
her primary consideration. ^ The Catholics plucked up courage 
as the court progressed^ and Huguenot suspicion of the queen's 
course was early aroused. Shortly after the tour of the provinces 
had begun, and while the court was till at Troyes pending the signa- 
ture of the treaty of peace, there was a jar between D'Andelot and 
the queen mother, who would not permit him to choose his own 
captains and other officers as was customarily permitted to colonels. 

1 Claude Haton, I, 332. 

2 "Non-seulement la France fut agitee en ceste annee de guerres, diminution 
des biens de la terre et de peste, mais aussi fut remplie et fort tormentee des voleurs , 
larrons et sacrileges, qui de nuict et de jour tenoient les champs et forcoient les 
eglises et maisons, pour voUer et piller les biens d'icelles pour vivre et s'entretenir." 
— Memoires de Claude Haton, I, 332 (1562). 

Smith declared that Lyons was the "most fearful and inhuman town he had 
ever seen. Men show themselves more fearful and inhuman than pagans." — 
C. S. P. For., No. 553, July 12, 1564. 

3 Castelnau, Book V, chap. x. 

4 Claude Haton, I, 378. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 239 

Partially in consequence of this affront, and partially to avoid being 
compromised more with Qeen Elizabeth, D'Andelot, the prince of 
Conde, and the cardinal Chatillon all remained away from the 
sessions of the council while the terms of peace were under con- 
sideration, and when the court resumed its migration, no one of 
these attended it.^ Indeed, after the court left Chalons-sur-Marne, 
so wide was the breach between the prince of Conde, the admiral 
and all of that faction, and the court, that the chancellor 
L'Hopital was the only official who continued to treat them with 
deference.^ The consideration shown Jeanne d'Albret only par- 
tially relieved the suspicions of the Protestants.^ 

We find the anxiety of the Protestants over the situation reflected 
in the proceedings of the provincial synod of the Reformed churches 
of the region through which the court had been travehng during 
this season, namely the churches of Champagne, Brie, Picardy, 
the Ile-de-France, and the French Vexin.'* This synod assembled 
on April 27, 1564, at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre, and was composed 
of forty-five ministers. Letters were read from many parts of France 
and abroad, among which was one from Beza bidding the Hugue- 
nots to be on their guard as the priests were contributing money 
for the purpose of rooting out the truth. It was agreed by the 
body to reply that the Protestants were suspicious of the intentions 
of the queen mother.^ In its resolutions the synod condemned 
the pohcy of the magistrates who cloaked their rehgious animosity 
under the guise of the law,^ and complained that the CathoHcs were 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 327, §11, April 14, 1564; No. 389, §12, May 12, 1564. 

2 Ibid., No. 755, October 21, 1565. 

3 Jeanne d'Albret had an interview with Catherine after the court left Macon; 
she demanded possession of Henry of Beam, and leave to return to her estates. 
But the queen mother, feeling that to grant either of these requests might injure 
her cause with Philip II, sought to satisfy her with the gift of 150,000 livres and the 
assignment of Vendome as the place of her residence {Corresp. de Catherine de 
Medicis, Introd., II, 1). 

4C. S. P. For., No. 384, § 7; Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 529. 
His opinion of the synod is expressed in Vol. VIII, 17; Correspondance de Catherine 
de Medicis, II, 179, note; Claude Haton, I, 384. 

5 C. S. P. For., No. 358. 

6 Castelnau, Book V, chap, x, p. 284, attests this miscarriage of justice. 



240 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

carrying the King about the country in order to show him the ruin 
of their churches.' The moderate La Roche even went so far as 
to declare that the Reformed church never could have peace while 
the queen mother governed. 

Justice and historical accuracy, however, require that it be said 
that the Huguenots' own conduct was sometimes in violation of 
the privileges granted them by the Edict of Amboise. Their 
iconoclasm toward the images and the pictures which the Catholics 
considered sacred was outrageous; they failed to confine their 
worship to authorized places, so that the magistrates were acting 
within their rights in so far repressing Protestant worship; their 
provincial synods not infrequently were inflammatory political 
assembhes.^ On the other hand, the CathoUcs wilfully molested 
the Huguenots, interfering in their congregations, and compelhng 
them to pay tithes and other dues for the support of the CathoHc 
poor and even — Castelnau says — -to support their provincial 
leagues.^ 

But the Huguenots went too far in their suspicion of the gov- 
ernment. Beza, at the synod of La Ferte-sous-Jouarre had been 
apprehensive of a joint attack of France and Savoy upon Geneva, 
not knowing that the French aim was to renew the alhance with 
the Catholic cantons in order to prevent Spanish ascendency 
there. "^ Bern and Zurich were the pillars of French ascendency 
in the Alpine country. France counted upon them more than 
upon all else to prevent Spanish recruiting, and to close the Alpine 
passes to Spain's army. To this end Bellievre, the marshal VieiUe- 

1 C. 5. P. For., 755, October 21, 1564. 

2 No one can read the Huguenot historian, La Popeliniere, Vol. II, Book XI, 
without prejudice, and not be convinced of the fact that the French Protestants 
infringed both the letter and the spirit of the Edict of Amboise. The fact that 
Damville, who had succeeded his father the constable as governor of Languedoc 
in 1562, and who was a moderate Catholic, was required to be so drastic in his 
.measures of repression that the Protestants complained of him to Charles IX, 
supports this view. Cf. Corresp. de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., 1 and li. 

3 Castelnau, Book V, chap, x; La Popeliniere, loc cit. 

^ U Amhassade de St. Sulpice, 328; Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, 
VIII, 398. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 241 

ville, and the bishop of Limoges, who had returned from Madrid, 
where he was succeeded by St. Sulpice, were sent into Switzerland 
in the early spring of 1564 to penetrate the designs of Spain, and 
to promise an early payment of the French debts due to the can- 
tons in return for their mihtary support in the wars of Henry II.' 
Bellievre's particular mission was to the Grisons. The position 
of the Grisons was a precarious one, for Spain could attack them 
from the Valteline, or starve them by prohibiting the exportation 
of grain into the country from Lombardy. By using such threats 
the Spanish governor of Milan hoped to compel the adherence of 
the Grisons to a treaty which would open to Spanish and imperial 
arms the great Alpine routes of the Spliigen, the Bernina, and the 
Stelvio, thus connecting the territories of the two branches of the 
Hapsburg house and shutting France out from eastern Switzerland. 
Belhevre fraternized with the popular element, and by May, 1564, 
had almost completely neutralized the success of his Spanish rival 
in spite of Spanish gold. Fortunately for France the Ten Jurisdic- 
tions declared in her favor and the Grisons, though very Spaniard- 
ized, luckily had a French pensioner as its chief magistrate, the 
Swiss captain Florin. 

Meanwhile the negotiations of the bishop of Limoges and the 
marshal Vieilleville had progressed so far that the treaty of alliance 
was all but signed. Late in October Bellievre received from 
Freiburg the text of the articles of alliance which the bishop of 
Limoges and the marshal Vieilleville proposed to submit to the 
Swiss diet. Encouraged by this success, he went to Glarus in order 
to overcome the influence of the Zurich preachers who were out- 
spoken enemies of the French alliance, and if possible to settle 
the difference between that state and Schwytz. By great dexterity 
he prevailed upon the two cantons to accept a uniform treaty. 
But he could not push negotiations to a conclusion until hearing 
from his colleagues. 

Spain made a supreme effort to secure the opening of the 

I It was rumored also that the queen mother was ready to sacrifice the Italian 
proteges of France to curry favor with Spain (Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Gran- 
velle, VIII, 395-400, note; L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 300, 335). 



242 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

passages between the Tyrol and the Milanais, but failed because 
the Grisons promised France that they would accept the principle 
of a renewed alliance, leaving the settlement of details pending, 
so that although the supremacy of France in Switzerland was 
not absolutely assured, at least the adherence of the three leagues 
to her seemed assured. 

But the Escurial and the Vatican were leagued to destroy 
French influence in Switzerland. Spain gave up hope of compelling 
the cantons to make a direct alliance with her, but by means of 
commercial threats and commercial inducements counted on 
still keeping the Alpine passes open to her arms. Her maxim was, 
where the grain of Lombardy goes, there "Spain's armies may go, 
too. To neutralize this danger the French energetically opposed 
any renewal of an alliance between the Vatican and the Swiss 
cantons. The Grey League, later won by the commercial prom- 
ises of Spain, separated from the other two in the end, but its 
defection was not so serious as it might have been, since according 
to the joint constitution the vote of two leagues in matters of foreign 
pohcy compelled the adherence of the third. But in order further 
to strengthen the hold of France, the French ambassadors had 
recourse to a sort of referendum in order to secure an approval of 
the majority of all the Swiss towns in favor of the French alliance, 
in addition to the official action of the three leagues. The success 
of this stroke was complete and the general diet of the three leagues 
gave its adherence to the treaty of Freiburg concluded by the 
bishop of Limoges and the marshal Vieilleville on December 7, 
1564.' The poverty of France, however, seriously endangered 
the continuance of this alliance. When it was concluded, France 
tried to stave off payment of her debts, which amounted to more 
than 600,000 livres, yet demanded the execution of the articles 
of Freiburg. Glarus, Lucerne, Schwytz, Appenzell, Valais, the 
Grisons, Schaffhausen, and Basel bitterly complained, the last 
also because of the burdens laid upon the importations of her 
commerce into France through Lyons. 

I "Traite et renouvellement d'alliance entre Charles IX, roi de France, et 
Messieurs les Ligues de Suisse, faite et conclue en la ville de Fribourg, le 7 jour 
de Dec, 1564" (Dumont, Corps dip., V, Pt. I, 129). 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 243 

In this conflict which France carried on against Spain and 
the Holy See in Switzerland, Charles IX was supported by the 
German Protestants, who of course were hostile to both houses 
of Hapsburg, and France may be credited with considerable address 
in smoothing the ruffled feelings of Basel and Schaffhausen, and 
softening the Protestant prejudices of Zurich. This is simply 
another way of saying that the foreign poHcy of France in Switzer- 
land was a Protestant policy. Even Bern yielded and joined the 
general treaty of alliance instead of insisting upon a particular 
treaty, as she had at first done."^ 

The Huguenots, however, suspicious of the impending reaction 
at home and misreading the diplomacy of France in Switzerland, 
grew more and more fearful and began to turn their eyes again 
toward the prince of Conde as a leader. But fortune and the 
craft of Catherine had lured the prince away from his own; he had 
become a broken reed, dangerous to lean upon. In July, 1564, 
Eleanor de Roye, the brave princess of Conde, died.^ The Guises 
and the queen mother, who were now in co-operation,^ at once 
began to practice to lure Conde away forever from his party, and 
the former at the same time, in order to make the alliance between 
France and Scotland more firm, conceived the idea of marrying 
the prince of Conde to Mary Queen of Scots. ^ As another possibility 

I Abridged from Rott, " Les missions diplomatiques de Pomponne de Bellievre 
en Suisse et aux Orisons (1560-74)," Rev. d'histoire diplomatique, XIV, 26-41 
(1900); cf. Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 630, 631; D'Aubigne, II, 
210. M. Rott admirably observes (p. 42): "Ainsi done, cinquante ans et plus 
avant Richelieu, la politique confessionnelle de la France s'inspirait deja dans 
les rapports avec I'etranger, de principes fort differents de ceux qui dirigeaient son 
action a I'interieur du royaume." 

^Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 72. The prince of Conde had 
secured leave to leave the court in order to visit her at Vitry in May, where she then 
lay ill. Her mother was Madeleine de Mailly, sister of the admiral and grand- 
daughter of Louise de Montmorency, sister of the old constable {ibid., VII, 630, 
and note; cf. C. S. P. For., 592, August 4, 1564). 

3 "All go and come by the cardinal of Lorraine, for without him nothing is 
done." — Smith to Cecil, November 13, 1564, C. S. P. For., 793, §2. 

4 Granvella to Mary Stuart, November, 1564, Papiers d'etat du cardinal de 
Granvelle, VIII, 570; cf. 550, 591, 599. 

Randolph to the earl of Leicester: "The prince of Conde is become a suitor 



244 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the Guises cherished the hope of marrying their niece to Charles IX 
and thus recovering the ascendency they had enjoyed under Fran- 
cis II.' The corollary of such a plan was the reduction of the Prot- 
estants of France. To these ideas Philip II, was stoutly opposed, 
though he concealed his opposition thereto; Mary was too valuable 
for his projects to be suffered to become a tool of the Guises. 
Their purposes were limited to France; his purposes embraced 
Christendom.^ 

In 1575 the Venetian ambassador wrote, a propos of one of 
the courtships of Queen EHzabeth: "Princes are wont to avail 
themselves of matrimonial negotiations in many ways."^ These 
words sagely summarize the efforts of much of the diplomacy of 
the sixteenth century. By a singular combination of events and line- 
ages, Mary Stuart was necessarily almost the cornerstone of the uni- 
versal monarchy Philip II dreamed of forming in Europe; her 
possession of the Scottish crown, her claims to England, her 

here, supported by the cardinal." — C. S. P. Scotland, IX, 67, November 7, 1564. 
Mary Stuart expressed her repugnance at such a prospect by saying: "Trewlye 
I am beholding to my uncle: so that yt be well with hym, he careth not what be- 
commethe of me." — Randolph to Cecil, C. S. P. Scot., II, 117, November g, 1564. 
Another match, proposed simply for the purpose of leading Conde along, was be- 
tween the young duke of Guise and the prince's daughter, Margaret, who was a 
little child. — C. S. P. For., No. 642, §3; Smith to Cecil from Valence, September i, 
1564; No. 650, ibid., September 3, 1564; No. 784, November 7, 1564. Smith to 
Cecil: "News is that the prince of Conde and the cardinal of Lorraine have inter- 
visited each other." Cf. Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 127. Bol- 
willer who disapproved of these plans in the interest of Philip II {ibid., VIII, 381, 
note) evidently believed the prince won over to Catholicism {ibid., VIII, 156). A 
propos of Conde's relapse he sarcastically wrote to Granvella on July 8, 1564: 
"Ce que Ton est en oppinion que L' Admiral et D'Andelot se dbibvent renger et 
hanger leur robbe, si le font, lors me semblera — il veoir une vraye farce, et pour- 
ront les femmes dire lors estre dadvantaige constante que les hommes, mesme 
madame de Vandosme et duchesse de Ferrare demeurans en I'oppinion ou Ton les 
void." — Ibid., VIII, 129. 

1 Corresp. de Catherine de Medicis, II, 106, note; L' Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 
164; C. S. P. Scot., II, 153, Randolph to Cecil, March 1-3, 1565. Mary Stuart in 
1564 was twenty-two years of age, Charles IX barely fourteen {Papiers d'etat du 
card, de Granvelle, VIII, 347, note). 

2 Cf. the luminous letter of Philip to Granvella, August 6, 1564, in Papiers 
d'etat du card, de Granvelle, VIII, 215, 216. 

3 C. S. P. Ven., November 6, 1575. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 245 

relationship with the Guises, united with the rehgion she professed, 
made the furtherance of her power the most practicable means to 
that end. Whether Mary's future husband were Don Carlos or the 
Austrian archduke was a matter of detail in Philip's plan — the end 
remained constant. Mary Stuart was of too much value to 
Philip II's poHtical designs to risk such a marriage as the Guises 
contemplated.' Her hand might be disposed elsewhere with 
greater advantage. 

Those intense religious convictions of the Spanish King which 
made him beheve he was the divinely ordained instrument of the 
counter-Reformation, united with his pohtical purposes and 
ambitions, required him to keep a watchful eye upon France.^ 
The Netherlands, France, Italy, England, Scotland were like so 
many squares of a vast political chessboard upon which he aimed 
so to move the pieces he was in command of as ultimately to seize 
possession of those countries, and redeem them from heresy. 
Mary Stuart was an important personage in Philip's purposes. 
He wanted to put her on the throne of EHzabeth and thus unite 

1 Fortunately for Philip, a whim of passion helped the Spanish King's purposes, 
and Catherine and the Guises failing to carry the match between Mary Stuart and 
the prince were content to keep the prince alienated from his party. The prince 
of Conde had become enamored of one of the queen mother's maids-of-honor, 
Isabel Limeuil, while the court was a Roussillon, and had seduced her. 

On this liaison see Corresp. de Cath. de Med., II, 189, note; Louis Paris, 
Negociations, Introd. XXVI, XXVII; Neg. Tosc, III, 572, and especially La 
Ferriere, "Isabel de Limeuil," Revue des deux mondes, December i, 1883, 636 
and the due d'Aumale, Histoire des princes de Conde, I, Appendix, xix. A sug- 
gestion of the manners prevailing at court is found in the following information: 
" Orders are taken in the court that no gentleman shall talk with the queen's maids, 
except it is in the queen's presence, or in that of Madame la Princesse de la 
Roche-sur-Yon, except he be married; and if they sit upon a form or stool, he may 
sit by her, and if she sits in the form, he may kneel by her, hut not lie long, as the 
fashion was in this court." — C. S. P. For., 1091, April 11, 1565. 

2 Unknown to Charles IX, the Spanish ambassador Chantonnay, whose recall 
Catherine had insisted upon for months past and who was finally replaced late in 
1564 by Alava, traversed the provinces of France in disguise, in the interest of his 
master, journeying through Auvergne, Rouergue, Toulouse, Agen and Bordeaux, 
before he reported at Madrid for new duty. 

St. Sulpice to Catherine de Medici, June 12, 1564; UAmhassade de St. Sulpice, 
7ri; Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 592. For some correspondence 
between Philip II and Granvella, and Granvella and Antonio Perez regarding 



246 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Scotland and England under a common Catholic rule. For a 
time he dreamed of marrying her to his own son, Don Carlos, 
until Catherine interfered and offered her daughter Marguerite as 
a less dangerous alternative to France. The death of Don Carlos,^ 
the eternal irresolution of the Spanish King, the development 
of new events, continually altered the details of PhiHp's purposes, 
but his essential aim never varied an iota.^ 

The subjugation of France, not in the exact terms 'of loss of 
sovereignty, perhaps, but no less in loss of true national inde- 
pendence was a necessary condition of PhiHp's purposes. The 
kingdom of France was situated in the very center of those 
dominions whose consoHdation was to be the Spanish King's reali- 
zation of universal rule. Spain bordered her on the south; the 
Netherlands on the north; in the east lay Franche Comte. 
Besides these territories which were directly Spanish, the CathoHc 
cantons of Switzerland and Savoy were morally in vassalage to 
Spain. Beyond Franche Comte lay the CathoHc Rhinelands, 

Chantonnay's recall see Gachard, Cones pond ance de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, 
I, 251-53. Upon Chantonnay's successor, Alava, see L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 
227, 228, 236; Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 393; Correspondance 
de Catherine de Medicis, II, 359, 534; Poulet, I, 570, n. i; Forneron, Histoire de 
Philippe II, II, 256. 

On the secret service of Philip II, see Forneron, I, 218, 290, 334; II, 304, 305; 
Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 498, 499; VIII, 128, 182. 

Alava exceeded his instructions in threatening France with war. Philip II, 
far from wishing war with France, repudiated his ambassador's statements 
(R. Q. H., January, 1879, p. 23). 

1 Upon one of the fits of madness of Don Carlos see letter of the Bishop of 
Limoges to Catherine de Medici in La Ferriere, Rapport, 48, 49. The Raumer 
Letters from Paris, Vol. I, chap, xv, contain an interesting account of Don Carlos, 
with long extracts from the sources. The editor rightly says that Ranke in his 
treatise on the affair of Don Carlos, as acute as it is circumstantial, has adopted the 
only right conclusion for the solution of this mysterious episode of history. See 
also Wiener J ahrbUcher, XL VI; Forneron, Hist, de Philippe II, II, 103 ff.; Louis 
Paris, Negociations, etc., 888; Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 317, 
note; L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 17, 29, loi, 597; Lea, in Amer. Hist. Rev., 
January, 1905; English Hist. Rev., XIV, 335. 

2 Cf. Papiers d'etat du card, de Granvelle, VIII, 334 and note; cf. 215, 
343, 344, 595, 596. Philip found a new prospective husband for Mary Stuart in the 
person of the archduke Charles. He had abandoned the idea of marrying 
Mary Stuart to his son even before the death of Don Carlos. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 247 

bound to the other branch of the house of Hapsburg. Beyond 
Switzerland and Savoy lay Italy, save Venice entirely, and Rome 
in part, a group of Spanish dominions. 

Catherine de Medici combated Philip II both at Madrid and 
Vienna. But by the side of the negative purpose to thwart 
PhiHp's proposed aUiances, Catherine de Medici had purposes of 
her own of the same sort. The daughter of a house made rich 
by banking and which never lived down the bourgeois tradition 
of its ancestry in spite of all its wealth and power, even though 
popes had come from its house, Catherine was fascinated by the 
thought of marrying Charles IX to the eldest daughter of the Haps- 
burgs, and her favorite son, the future Henry III, then known as 
the duke of Orleans-Anjou, to the Spanish princess Juana, sister 
of Philip, hoping to see some of Spain's numerous dominions pass 
to France as part of Juana' s dowry. 

In the pursuance of this double marriage project, the 
queen early began to beset Phihp II for a personal interview, and 
urged her daughter to persuade the king to the same end, using 
Pius IV's cherished idea of a concert of the great CathoUc powers 
to consider the condition and needs of Christendom with some 
adroitness as a screen to her own personal purposes.' 

Much of her correspondence with St. Sulpice relates to an 
interview with Phihp II for the purpose of arranging these matters, 
upon which she had set her heart, and the time of both the ambas- 
sador and the Spanish King was consumed with repeated interviews 
none of which was ever satisfactory, and all of which were tedious.^ 
The natural reluctance of Phihp II to commit himself to any posi- 
tive course, united with the great aversion he felt toward the queen 
mother because of her wavering rehgious poHcy — for rigid adher- 
ence to CathoHcism was Philip's one inflexible feature — led the 
King to follow a course of procrastination and duphcity for months, 
during which, however, he never evinced any outward sign of 

1 See R. Q. H., XXXIV, 461. 

2 Catherine turned to her own advantage an almost forgotten wish of 
Philip II that he might see her, expressed in July, 1560, when his anxiety 
was great because of her lenient policy toward the French Protestants {R. Q. H., 
XXXIV, 458)- 



248 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

impatience; his countenance remained as imperturbable as that 
of a Hindu idol, and never by any expression reflected his thought/ 
Foohsh pride and undue affection led Catherine even to use 
the Turk as a means of pressure upon Spain in order to accomplish 
this double marriage project. In the year 1562 an ambassador 
of the Sultan passed through France, having come by way 
of Venice to Lyons, and going thence via Dijon and Troyes to 
Paris. ^ Turkey, after crushing the revolt of Bajazet,^ was seeking 
to avenge the accumulated grievances which she had suffered from 
Austria and Spain, especially the latter, for Phihp II's expedition 
to Oran and his capture of its fortress, which was regarded as 
impregnable, had been a bitter blow to the Porte.'* Exasperated by 
Spain, Turkey whose war policy was guided by the able grand 
vizier, Mohammed Sokolli, prepared a vast expedition to expel 
her from all points which she occupied in Africa. But such 
a campaign was not possible until Malta,, lying midway 
in the straits of the Mediterranean, was overcome. ^ Europe, 
which still preserved an acute memory of the protracted 
siege of Rhodes, looked forward with dismay to the prospective 
attack upon Malta, so that Catherine de Medici's cordial reception 
at Dax of another Turkish ambassador — he was a Christian Pole 
in the employ of the Sultan — in the course of the tour of the 
provinces was a political act that was daring to rashness."^ In 
order to force Phihp II's hand Catherine even intimated that 

1 Challoner, English ambassador to Spain, to the queen: "Hardly shall a 
stranger by his countenance or words gather at any great alteration of mind, either 
to anger, or rejoicement, but after the fashion of a certain still flood;" quoted by 
Forneron, I, 319, n. 2, from Record Office MSS No. 466. 

2 See the extremely interesting account of the passing of the Turkish embassy 
through Provins, in Claude Haton, I, 342-44. 

3 On the conspiracy of Bajazet and his flight to Persia see D'Aubigne, Book 
III, chap, xxviii. 

4 Negociations dans le Levant, II, 729. 

5 Ibid., 730. 

6 Spain suspected the Sultan was desirous of securing a French roadstead 
for his fleet during the siege of Malta. See Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, 
V, 38, note; D'Aubigne, 221, and n. i; Papiers d'etat die cardinal de Granvelle, 
VIII, 162; UAmhassade de St. Sulpice, 398; R. Q. H., XXXIV, 473-78. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 249 

Charles IX might marry Queen Ehzabeth, although this proposi- 
tion was too great a strain upon the creduhty of Europe to be 
given any consideration.^ Soon after St. Sulpice reached Spain, 
we find Toulouse suggested as the place for the desired interview,^ 
and thereafter for thirty-eight months this conference was one 
of the dominant thoughts in Catherine's mind.^ 

The queen mother's original plan had been to avoid the heat 
of the south by passing the winter at Mouhns, and visiting Langue- 
doc and Guyenne in the next spring.^ But the influence of im- 
pending change impelled her forward in the maze of tournaments, 
balls, and masques.^ Although she was in "a country full of 
mountains and brigands,"^ so that she feared "que cette canaille 
sacageassent quelques uns de sa cour," and strengthened Strozzi's 
band as a precaution, nevertheless Catherine's resolution seems 
to have increased in degree as she moved southward. Probably 
the fact that the prince of Conde was in the toils encouraged her; 
certainly the necessity of exhibiting something positive that would 
please Spain, in view of the approaching interview, actuated her. 
But apart from her own motives, outside pressure had been brought 
to bear upon her to this end, when at Bar-le-Duc, where the King 
went to attend the baptism of the infant child of Charles III, duke 
of Lorraine, who had married Charles IX's sister, Claudine, in 

1 Corresp. de Cath. de Med., II, Introd., Ixxxvi, Ixxxvii; R. Q. H., XXXIV, 470. 

2 L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 14, Letter of March 27, 1562. 

3 Perez writes to Granvella on November 15, 1563: "La reine mere de France 
tourmente sa majeste catholique pour la determiner a une entrevue." — Papiers 
d'etat du card, de Granvelle, VII, 256; and two weeks later (December 4, 1563) 
we find Philip II writing to Alva, saying that "L'ambassadeur de St. Sulpice lui 
a propose une entrevue avec la reine de France," and desiring the duke's opinion 
in the matter (Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, I, 277). 
The actual text is in Philip's correspondence. No. XXVI. 

4 L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 226. 

s "Ne se passoit jour sans nouvelle sorte de combatz, passe-temps et plaizirs. 
.... L'on drejoit joustes, tournoy, commedies et tragoedies." — Fourquevaux to 
St. Sulpice, L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 266; cf. Papiers d'etat du cardinal de 
Granvelle, VIII, 466. For an account of one of these entertainments, see Castelnau, 
Book V, chap. vi. 

6 "Le pays est tel que vous avez entendu, pleins de montagnes et bandoliers." 
— Catherine to St. Sulpice, January 9, 1564, L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 331. 



250 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

March, ^ Later "when the court came to Lyons information was 
brought to it that if the King and his advisers should continue to 
resist the general rising against the Huguenots, it would be turned 
against itself."^ In this instance, however, the pressure came, not 
from Spain, but from Pope Pius IV whose agent, the Florentine 
Ludovico Antinori, was sent to France to urge the extirpation of 
Calvinism and to plead the cause of the findings of the 
Council of Trent.-^ Catherine obeyed the signs. But as a sudden 
rupture of the peace of Amboise would have been attended with 
dangerous consequences she proceeded cautiously.^ 

The first^ definite intimation of the reaction was an edict issued 
on July 24, prohibiting Calvinist worship within ten leagues of 
the court, notwithstanding the fact that authorized places of Prot- 
estant worship were affected by it. A fortnight later, on August 
4, came a more sweeping edict — the so-called Edict of Roussillon^ 
which forbade all persons of whatever religion, quahty, or con- 
dition to molest one another, or to violate or maltreat images, 

1 Charles III had been educated in France and was a French pensioner to the 
amount of 250,000 francs annually {Rel. ven., I, 451). On this Spanish pressure to 
revoke the Edict of Amboise see Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 461, 
468; Poulet, I, 576, note; Castelnau, Book V, chap, ix; R. Q. H., XXXIV, 462, 463. 
The Huguenots quickly divined it (Languet, Epist. seer., II, 268, November 18, 
1563; Arch, d' Orange-Nassau, I, 136). 

The anxiety of the French Protestants over the King's visit of Lorraine is well 
expressed in the letter of Lazarus Schwendi to the Prince of Orange, August 22, 
1564, in Arch, d' Orange-Nassau, I, 191. 

2 Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, 226. 

3 Davila, Guerre civile di Francia, III, 144. On September 27, 1564, the 
prevot Morillon wrote to the cardinal Granvella: "L'edit de France contre les 
apostatz me faict esperer que la royne mere passera plus avant, puisque la saison 
est a propos; et si elle ne le faict, je crains qu'elle et les siens le paieront." — Papiers 
d'etat du card, de Granvelle, VIII, 361. 

4 Castelnau Book V, chap. x. Granvella expressed impatience at Catherine's 
slowness in repressing the Huguenots. See his letters to vice-chancellor Seld and 
Philip II at this time in Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 598, 599, 
632, 633. 

s Unless the order forbidding Renee of Ferrara to hold Protestant service even 
in private while at the court, be taken as the first; see R. Q. H., XXXIV, 467. 

6 Near Lyons, where on account of the plague the court was stopping July 1 7 
to August 15; it belonged to the cardinal Tournon, who held it in apanage. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 251 

or to lay hands upon any sacred objects upon pain of 
death; magistrates were Hkewise enjoined to prevent the 
Huguenots from performing their devotions in any suspected 
places, but to confine them to such places as had been specified; 
finally, the Huguenots were forbidden to hold any synods or other 
assemblies except in the presence of certain of the King's officers, 
who were appointed to be present at them,' The pretext of both 
of these edicts was the trespass upon the terms of Amboise by the 
Protestants, and fear of a Protestant conspiracy. But in reality 
the action of the government constituted a partial yielding to that 
CathoHc pressure which already had made itself manifest at 
Nancy. 

The Edict of Roussillon completely ignored a petition of the 
Huguenots presented to the King while at Roussillon, which shows 
the pernicious activity of the local Catholic leagues already. The 
complaint specified that infractions of the Edict of Amboise had 
been committed by the Cathohcs, especially in Burgundy; that 
Catholic associations everywhere were being formed against them ; 
that the priests openly lauded the King of Spain from their pulpits ; 
that their synods were broken up by the enemies of their 
religion.^ 

After a sojourn of a month at Roussillon, the pilgrimage of 
the court was again resumed. At Valence (August 22) Catherine 
received word that Elizabeth of Spain had given birth to still-born 
twin babes. On September 24 Avignon was reached, where a 
stay of two weeks was made during which Catherine con- 
sulted the famous astrologer Nostradamus. Hyeres and Aix 
were stages on the road to Marseilles^ (November 3-10), whence 

1 Isambert, XIV, 166; Castelnau, Book V, chap, x; La Popeliniere, II, Book 
XI, 5, 6; Cheruel, Histoire de V administration monarchique de la France, I, 196. 

2 D'Aubigne, II, 211. On the last complaint see Correspondance de Catherine 
de Medicis, II, 195, 203, and notes. These Catholic associations generally at this 
time went by the name of "Confreries du St. Esprit," as D'Aubigne's allusion 
shows. 

3 For an episode showing at once the manners of some in the court, and the 
Catholic intensity of the people of Marseilles, see Papiers d'etat du cardinal de 
Granvelle, VIII, 475. 



252 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

it led to Nlmes' (December 12), and Montpellier^ (Decem- 
ber 17), and thence to Agde and Beziers,^ where progress for 
some time was blocked by heavy snow-falls. The snows irritated 
Catherine and to placate her impatience she was shown historical 
evidence that both Blanche of Castile and the queen of Charles 
VII had once been snowed-in in these parts for three months."* 
UnUke his mother, Charles IX enjoyed it, building a snow fort 
in which he and his pages withstood a siege by some of the gentle- 
men of the household. 5 

During this enforced sojourn Catherine de Medici received 
word of the famous conflict between the marshal Montmorency, 
who had been made governor of Paris,^ when the court started 
en tour, and the cardinal of Lorraine. On January 8, 1565, the 
cardinal of Lorraine sought to enter Paris with a great rout of 
armed retainers. The marshal demanded the disarming of the 
company, in compHance with a royal ordonnance of 1564 forbid- 
ding the carrying of arquebuses, pistols, or other firearms,^ not 
knowing that the cardinal had a warrant from the queen mother 

1 Lamathe, "Deliberation des consuls de Nismes au sujet de I'entree de 
Charles IX dans ladite ville (1564)," Rev. des Soc. savant des depart., 5^ 
serie, III (1872), 781. 

2 While here, Catherine dispatched the marshal Bourdillon into Guyenne 
for the purpose of dissolving the league formed at Cadillac on March 13, 1563 
(D'Aubigne, II, 213). As we shall see, the mission was fruitless. 

3 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., Iviii. The editor adds: 
"De toutes les villes du Midi, c'etait [Beziers] celle qui comptait le plus de Protes- 
tants." On account of the alarm evinced by the Huguenots of the south — 300 
gentlemen of Beziers visited the King in a body — Charles IX, when at Marseilles on 
November 4, "confirmed" the Edict of Amboise. Yet so apprehensive was the 
court that whenever it stopped an effort was made to disarm the local populace 
(C. S. P. For., No. 788 [1564]). 

4 On the incident of Catherine reading a MS chronicle about Blanche of 
Castile, see the extract of the Venetian ambassador in Baschet {La diplomatie 
venetienne, 521, 522). 

s Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., lix. 

6 Claude Haton, I, 378. 

7 The order of the King of December 13, 1564, prohibiting any nobles whocA^er 
they might be, unless princes of the house of France, from entering the government 
of the Ile-de-France is still unpublished. It is preserved in a report of the Spanish 
ambassador, Arch, nat., K. 1,505, No. 31. It is to be distinguished from the 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 253 

authorizing his men to wear arms if so desired. The cardinal 
haughtily refused to obey, and a fight took place in the street 
near the corner of St. Innocents, in which one man was killed.' 
The reactionary pohcy of the government stimulated the local 
CathoHc leagues in Languedoc during this winter of 1564-65.^ The 
rehgious prejudice which these associations manifested was influ- 
enced by the bitter jealousy existing between the Guises and the 
Montmorencys. From the hour of the clash between the cardinal 
and the marshal, the Guises plotted to compass the ruin of the 
house of Montmorency, and sought to find support in the Catholic 
leagues of the southern provinces. The tolerant policy of the 

general ordonnance of the year before — "Lettres du roy contenans defenses a 
toutes personnes de ne porter harquebuzes, pistoles, ni pistolets, ni autres bastons 
a feu, sur peine de confiscation de leurs armes et chevaulx," Paris, 1564. Cf. 
Tsambert, XIV, 142. 

1 All the historians notice this episode. See D'Aubigne, Book IV, chap, v; 
Corresp. de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., lix, Ix, and 253-56 where the letters 
of the marshal and the queen mother on the subject are given. The editor, in a 
long note, sifts the evidence. Other accounts are in Claude Haton, I, 381-83 
(other references in note); C.S.P.For., No. 942, January 24, 1564; Mem. du due de 
Nevers, V, 12, 13; Castelnau, Book VI, chap. ii. 

In Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 600-2, is an account from the 
pen of Don Louis del Rio, an attache of the Spanish embassy at Paris; and on 
pp. 655, 656 is the " Harangue de I'admiral de France a MM. de la court du parlement 
de Paris du 27 Janvier 1565 avec la reponse." The baron de Ruble has written 
the history of this incident in Mem. de la Soc. de I'hist. de Paris de VIle-de-F ranee, 
Vol. VI. 

According to a letter of Mary Stuart to Queen Elizabeth, February 12, 1565, 
the resentment due to the old lawsuit over Dammartin flashed out at this time. 
But it must have been a conjecture on her part, for she adds: "I have heard no 
word of the duke of Guise or monsieur d'Aumale." — C. S. P. Scot., II, 146. The 
prince of Conde's Catholic leanings at this critical moment are manifested in a 
letter to his sister, the abbess of Chelles, in which he states that he is annoyed at the 
outrage committed on the cardinal of Lorraine by the marshal Montmorency; 
that the union of these two houses is more than necessary; that if he had been with 
the cardinal, he would have given proof of his good-will by deeds. See Appendix 
VII. 

2 "Les confraires du Sainct-Esprit et autres reprenoient plus de viguer, et les 
provinces ne pouvoient plus souffrir les ministres ny les presches publics et parti- 
culiers, et se se paroient entierement des huguenots; qui estoient argumens certains 
qu'en peu de temps il se verroit quelque grand changement." — Castelnau, Book 
VI, chap. ii. 



254 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

marshal Montmorency and his brother Damville was seized upon 
by the Guises to make them odious.^ The secular clergy and 
still more the Jesuits and Capuchins were very active in this work, 
going from town to town and village to village, urging Catholics 
vigorously to defend their faith, and their fiery preaching materi- 
ally advanced the tendency to union among the provincial leagues.^ 

Under the effective leadership of the sieur de Candalle, the 
league of Agen had had an astonishing spread over Guyenne, 
exhibiting a strength of organization and an audacity which fore- 
shadows that of the Holy League of 1576, in whose genesis, indeed, 
it represents an evolutionary stage. What made the league of 
Guyenne so peculiarly formidable, however, was not so much 
its perfection of organization and its wide expansion, as the fact 
that it was organized and had existence without the knowledge 
or consent of the crown, and in transgression of the royal authority, 
which forbade such associations. This highly developed stage 
of existence was arrived at by the league of Agen in August, 1564, 
from which date it may properly be called the league of Guyenne.^ 

Naturally the Guises approached Montluc with their plan. 
While the court was sojourning at Mont-de-Marsan (March 9-24, 
1565), waiting the arrival of the Spanish queen and the duke of 
Alva at Bayonne, an intimation was given to Montluc that a league 
was in process of formation in France "wherein were several great 
persons, princes and others," and an agent of the Guises at this 

I Ardent Catholics, like Cardinal Granvella, believed both the marshal Mont- 
morency and Damville to be Protestants at heart {Papiers d'etat du cardinal de 
Granvelle, VIII, 278). 

' "Des catholiques formerent des 'unions' pour defendre I'honneur de Dieu 
et de la Sainte Eglise, et ces unions, en se rapprochant constituenent la Ligue." — 
Beulier, "Pourquoi la France este-elle restee catholique au XVIe siecle," Revue 
anglo-romaine, January ii, 1896, 257. The Jesuits worked hard in France for 
Philip II. Forneron, II, 304, quotes an interesting letter to this effect from a 
Jesuit working in France. 

3 The proces-verbal of this league is in Memoires de Condi, ed. London, 
VI, 290-306. For the court's sojourn at Agen see Barrere (I'abbe), "Entree et 
sejour de Charles IX a Agen (1565)," Bull, du Com. de la langue, de I'hisf. et des 
arts de la France I (1854), 472. 

For the King's sojourn at Condom (1565) see Barrere (I'abbe), ibid., 476. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 255 

time endeavored to persuade Montluc to join the association.^ 
But Montluc was cautious ; he had no great affection for the Guises 
and, moreover, leagues and such associations were against the law, 
which he, as a crown officer, was pledged to support. Grammont 
who was opposed to Montluc had already complained of his con- 
duct to the queen mother.^ Besides, there were private reasons, 
whose nature will be soon developed, which made him hesitate. 
Montluc carried his information to Catherine de Medici, who, not 
yet perceiving that the ambition of the Guises was the chief motive, 
was not at once seriously alarmed, since the anti-Protestant policy 
of the government made it indifferent now to such associations. 
Accordingly, when the court reached Bordeaux (it arrived there 
on April 9) and the Huguenots renewed their complaints against 
Candalle and his associates, the King ignored the petition, recog- 
nizing that many of the nobles were members of the league of 
Guyenne. Instead, he gave the league a quasi-legal status by 
proclaiming that the crown would not listen to any more complaints 
against Candalle and his associates. ^ 

But the queen mother was genuinely alarmed a few weeks later 
when the real purpose and scope of the proposed league were re- 
vealed to her through an intercepted letter which the duke of 
Aumale had written on February 27, 1565, to the marquis d'Elboeuf. 
The duke of Montpensier, the vicomte de Martigues, Chavigny, 
who was a Guise protege, D'Angennes, and the bishop of Mans, 
were named in this letter as the chiefs of an association, which had 
for its avowed end the abasement of the house of Montmorency. '^ 

1 Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 80, 81; De Thou, V, Book XXXVII, 
32; Anquetil, I, 213. 

2 Collection Godefroy, CCLVII, No. 7, July 18, 1564. 

3 De Thou, IV, Book XXXVII, 32. 

4 A printed copy of this important dispatch, entitled "Coppie d'une lettre 
du sieur d' Aumale au sieur marquis d'Elboeuf son frere, sur I'association qu'ils 
deliberent faire contre la maison de Montmorency" (February 27, 1565), is to be 
found in the Bib. Nat., L h. 33: 172. It evidently was circulated as 
a political pamphlet by the Huguenots. But where is the original ? Portions 
of it are as follows: "Mon frere .... j'ay receu de vostre homme la 

lettre que m'avez escripte J 'en ay par plusieurs fois cy devant escript 

a Messieurs de Montpensier, d'Estampes, Cehavigny: par ou ils auroyent bien 



256 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Catherine, apprehending the consequences certain to resuk from 
such an extension of the feud of the two houses, implored the 
King, at a large meeting of the council held on May 18, 1565, to 
divulge what had been ascertained — that a secret association had 
been discovered in defiance of the law, having political aims detri- 
mental to the monarchy, and a system of government for the levy- 
ing of men and money without the King's authority. The coun- 
selors, with one accord, denied their knowledge or implication, 
and protested their devotion to the cause and the law. Catherine 
was thoroughly alarmed, and appealed to Montluc for advice. 
What followed may be told in his own words : 

I heard then some whisper of a league that was forming in France, wherein 
were several very great persons, both Princes and others, whom nevertheless 
I have nothing to do to name, being engaged by promise to the contrary. I 
cannot certainly say to what end this League was contrived; but a certain 
gentleman named them to me every one, endeavoring at the same time to 
persuade me to make one in the Association, assuring me it was to a good end; 
but he perceived by my countenance that it was not a dish for my palate. I 
presently gave the Queen private intimation of it; for I could not endure such 
kind of doings, who seemed to be very much astonished at it, telling me it was 
the first syllable she had ever heard of any such thing; and commanding me to 
enquire further into the business, which I did, but could get nothing more 
out of my gentleman; for he now lay upon his guard. 

Her Majesty then was pleased to ask my advice, how she should behave 
herself in this business, whereupon I gave her counsel to order it so that the 

peu juger la volonte que j'ay tousjours lue de nous venger, et combien je desirerois 
I'association que vous dites (verso) prevoyant assez combien elle estoit necessaire 
non seulement pour nous, mais aussi pour tous las gens de bien a qui Ton en veult 
plus que jamais. 

"Et pour ceste cause, men frere, je trouverois merveilleusement bon que les 
diets Sieurs y voulsissent entendre, laissant les villes, d'autant qu'il n'y a nulle 
asseurance en peuple, comme je I'ay dernierement encore cogneut. Mais avec la 
Noblesse, de ma part je suis tout resolu et prest, et n'y veux espargner aucune 
chose, et le plustost sera le meilleur. Qui me fait vous prier, de regarder et en bien 
adviser tous parensemble, et mesmes avec le seigneur de Montpensier, et de m'en 
mander ce que vous aurez delibere, a fin que par la je resolue avec les Seigneurs et 
Noblesse qui sont de deja et mes Gouverneurs, qui feront tout ce que je vouldray. 

"Au demeurant, vous avez bien entendu le nombre de Chevaliers de I'Ordre 
qui ont este faicts, qui sont bien pres de trente ou plus, dont monsieur de Brion en 
est des premiers. Aussi des preparatifs que Ion fuit a la Court pour aller a Bayonne 
recevoir festoyer la Roine d'Espaigne." 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 257 

King himself should say in public that he had heard of a League that was 
forming in his Kingdom, which no one could do without giving him some 
jealousy and offence; and that therefore he must require everyone without 
exception to break off this League, and that he would make an Association in 
his Kingdom, of which he himself would be the Head; for so for some time it 
was called, though they afterwards changed the name, and called it the Con- 
federation of the King. The Queen at the time that I gave her this advice 
did by no means approve of it, objecting, that should the King make one, it 
was to be feared that others would make another; but I made answer and said 
that the King must engage in his own all such as were in any capacity of doing 
the contrary, which, however, was a thing that could not be concealed, and* 
might well enough be provided against. Two days after, her Majesty being 
at supper, called me to her and told me that she had considered better of the 
affair I had spoke to her about, and found my counsel to be very good, and 
that the next day, without further delay, she would make the King propound 
the business to his Council; which she accordingly did, and sent to enquire 
for me at my lodging, but I was not within. In the evening she asked me why 
I did not come to her, and commanded me not to fail to come the next day, 
because there were several great difficulties in the Council, of which they had 
not been able to determine. I came according to her command, and there 
were several disputes. Monsieur de Nemours made a very elegant speech, 
remonstrating "That it would be very convenient to make a League and 
Association for the good of the King and his Kingdom, to the end, that if 
affairs should so require, every one with the one and the same will might 
repair to his Majesty's person, to stake their lives and fortunes for his service, 
and also in case any one of what religion soever, should offer to invade or 
assault them, or raise any commotion in the state, that they might with one 
accord unite, and expose their lives in their common defence." The Duke of 
Montpensier was of the same opinion, and several others saying that they 
could not choose but so much the more secure the peace of the Kingdom, when 
it should be known that all the Nobility were thus united for the defence of the 
Crown. 

The Queen then did me the honor to command me to speak; whereupon 
I began, and said, "That the League proposed could be no ways prejudicial 
to the King, being that it tended to a good end for his Majesty's service, the 
good of his Kingdom, and the peace and security of his People; but that one 
which should be formed in private could produce nothing but disorder and 
mischief; for the good could not answer for the evil disposed; and should the 
cards once be shuffled betwixt League and League, it would be a hard matter 
to make of it a good game; that being the most infallible way to open a door 
to let strangers into the kingdom, and to expose all things to spoil and ruin; 
but that all of us in general, both Princes and others, ought to make an 



258 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Association, which should bear the title of the League, or the Confederation of 
the King, and to take a great and solemn oath, not to decline or swerve from 
it upon penalty of being declared such as the oath should import; and that his 
Majesty having so concluded, ought to dispatch messengers to all parts of the 
kingdom, with commission to take the oaths of such as were not there present, 
by which means it would be known, who were willing to live and die in the 
service of the king and state. And should anyone be so foolish or impudent 
as to offer to take arms, let us all swear to fall upon them; I warrant your 
Majesty I will take such order in these parts, that nothing shall stir to the 
prejudice of your royal authority. And in like manner let us engage by the 
faith we owe to God, that if any Counter-League shall disclose itself, we will 
give your Majesty immediate notice of it; and let your Majesty's be sub- 
scribed by all the great men of your kingdom. The feast will not be right 
without them, and they also are easy to be persuaded to it, and the fittest to 
provide against any inconvenience that may happen." 

This was my proposition, upon which several disputes ensued ; but in the 
end the King's Association was concluded on, and it was agreed, that all the 
Princes, great Lords, Governors of Provinces, and Captains of Gens d'armes 
should renounce all Leagues and Confederacies whatsoever, as weU without 
as within the Kingdom, excepting that of the King, and should take the oath 
upon pain of being declared rebels to the crown; to which there were also 

other obligations added, which I do not remember In the end all was 

past and concluded, and the Princes began to take the oath, and to sign the 
articles/ 

The w^eakness of the crov^n's position in these circumstances is 
evident. Recognizing its inabiHty to crush these local associations 
and fearing lest control of them would pass over wholly to the 

I Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 80-86. I have used the seventeenth- 
century translation of Cotton, 274, 275, which preserves something of the spirit of 
the original. De Thou, never having seen the document in question, expresses 
his doubt of Montluc's veracity in the matter, and argues the improbability of the 
King's having followed Montluc's advice on the ground that the crown had con- 
demned all secret associations as destructive of domestic tranquillity. "Why 
should the King make a league with his subjects?" asks De Thou. "Far from 
deriving any advantage from it, would it not diminish his authority ? Would the 
King not incite his subjects to do exactly what he wanted to avoid, and by his own 
example accustom them to town factions; to foment and support parties in the 
kingdom ?"— De Thou, IV, Book XXXVII, 33. Unfortunately for the truth of 
De Thou's hypothesis, the facts are the other way, for there is documentary proof 
that Charles IX followed out Montluc's suggestion, and sent the declaration to all 
his officers requesting their adherence to it. The baron de Ruble discovered the 
proof in F. Fr. 20,461, fol. 58. See his edition of Montluc, III, 86, note; cf. D'Aubigne, 
II, 218, and n. 6. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 259 

Guises, the crown tried to save its power and its dignity by fusing 
them into a single confederation under the King and forbidding 
the formation of future associations without royal consent. But 
the power of the crown was not commensurate with its show of 
authority. The leagues continued to multiply and to remain 
independent of the crown's coercion. In the year 1565 the situa- 
tion is different in degree but not in kind from that which existed 
in 1576 when the Holy League was formed. 

Even the Spanish afhhations of the Holy League existed poten- 
tially at this time through the treason of Montluc' For the wily 
Gascon, whose character was a combination of daring determina- 
tion, rehgious bigotry and envy, in recommending the measures 
he did was really taking steps to cover up his own tracks. Montluc, 
despite his professions of allegiance, was angry at the queen mother, 
and quite ready to knife her in the dark. His heart was filled with 
rebellious envy of Vieilleville, because the latter had been given a 
marshal's baton. Disappointed in this expectation he asked for the 
post of colonel-general which D'Andelot filled.^ Instead Montluc 
had to be satisfied with the office of governor of Guyenne, which he 
regarded as ill compensation of his services.^ In consequence of 
these grievances, even before the recovery of Havre, Montluc had 
entered into correspondence with PhiHp II, to whom he represented 
the necessity of Spanish intervention in France, on account of the 
double danger by which France was threatened through the pur- 
poses of the Protestants and Catherine de Medici's toleration of 
them. The Spanish King at first hesitated, but soon availed him- 
self of the opportunity thus afforded, for two strings were better 

1 The credit of having made this important discovery is due to the baron de 
Ruble, Comment aires et lettres de Montluc, IV, 317-26, 329, 330, 346, 347, 362, 
363. But it was Forneron w^ho showed the world the magnitude of Montluc's 
treason (Hist, de Philippe II, I, 293-330). Suspicion of Montluc's course, 
however, prevailed in his own day. He was charged with having agreed to deliver 
over the province of Guyenne to Philip II in 1570 and issued a cartel against his 
adversaries denying that he had any intelligence with Spain. See Appendix VIII. 

2 D'Andelot's appointment to this post created intense feeling among the 
Catholic officers. Strozzi, Brissac, and Charry openly refused to obey him 
(D'Aubigne, II, 207; Brantome, V, 341). 

3 Forneron, I, 294, n. 3. 



26o THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

than one to his bow. Profound secrecy covered the negotiations. 
Phihp's love of mystery and the dehcacy of the matter led him to 
conceal the plan even from his ambassador in France, and operate 
through Bardaxi, a cousin of a Spanish captain of that name, who 
had been pursued by the Inquisition and had fled to France, where 
he sought service under Montluc in recompense of which he finally 
was rehabilitated.^ Montluc proposed the formation of a league 
between the Pope, the Emperor, the Spanish King, and the leading 
Catholic princes of Germany and Italy to avert a union of the 
Huguenots with outside Protestant princes for the overthrow of 
the Catholic rehgion in France.^ He enlarged upon the moral 
" benefit " of such a league to France, now ridden by the Huguenots 
to the imminent ruin of the monarchy, and pointed out to Phihp II 
the pecuHar interest he had in crushing Calvinism. ^ The plan 
was for Philip II to kidnap Jeanne d'Albret who was to be given 
over to the Inquisition, and to seize possession of Beam, and thus 
accomplish two purposes at once— destroy the hearth of Calvinism 
in France, and estabhsh Spanish power north of the Pyrenees. ^ 
Fortunately for France, the French ambassador at Madrid, St. 
Sulpice, was informed of the plan, though he did not know of Mont- 
luc's treason, by a servant of the Spanish queen, and Catherine 
de Medici's energetic steps in the protection of Beam nipped the 
scheme in the bud.^ 

This joint plan of Montluc and Philip II for the seizure of Beam 

1 Montluc, ed. De Ruble, IV, Introd., ix. 

2 It will be observed that Montluc independently had come to the same con- 
clusion as Granvella. 

3 Montluc, ed. De Ruble, IV, 317-26, February 8, 1564. 

4 Forneron, I, 330. D'Aubigne, II, 294, wrongly ascribes this plot to the 
Jesuits. The traditional Protestant account, attributed to Calignon, chancellor of 
Navarre, is printed in Mem. du due de Nevers, II, 579; also in Mem. de Villeroy. 
The account in Arch, air., VI, 281, is much colored. Catholic historians have 
denied the existence of such a plot, e. g., the abbe Gamier in Mem. de V Acad, 
des inscrip. (1787), Vol. L, 722. But since the publication of Montluc's Correspon- 
dance there is no doubt of it. 

s Forneron, I, 303-6. Cable, L' Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 483, gives the text 
of the ambassador's letter to Catherine, and his note of thanks to the queen's 
embroiderer who divulged the plot. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 261 

and the capture of its queen telescoped with another plot against 
her to which Philip and Pope Pius IV were parties. On Septem- 
ber 28, 1563, a papal bull excommunicated the queen for heresy, 
and she was cited before the Holy Office for trial.' To Catherine's 
credit she at once took a firm stand in favor of the queen of Navarre.^ 

It was not in the nature of PhiHp II to be daring in dayhght. 
Precaution was second nature to him. Lansac's mission to Madrid 
to protest against the action of Pius IV coincided with Montluc's 
overtures to the Spanish King. The discovery of part of the plan 
made PhiHp timid about pushing it at all until a more favorable time 
at least. Accordingly he gave Montluc Httle encouragement, save 
offering him an asylum in Spain if events should compel him to quit 
France on account of his treasonable correspondence,^ while to 
Lansac he said that "what the Pope had done against 'Madame de 
Vendome' was very inopportune and would be remedied. "^ In a 
word, Philip II dissembled his participation in the Pope's conduct, 
asserting that the procedure had been taken without his knowl- 
edge, and that while he deplored the queen of Navarre's apostasy 
he could not be unmindful of the fact that she was kith and kin of 
the queen of Spain, his wife ! ^ 

There probably was a certain amount of spite work in Philip's 
repudiation of the Pope at this time. One of the important poHti- 
cal issues raised at the Council of Trent was the question of pre- 
cedence between the ambassadors of France and Spain. Lansac, 
Charles IX's ambassador to the Council, claimed the honor of 

I D'Aubigne, II, 204, 205; Mem. de Conde, IV, 669. Charles IX's letter of 
November 30, 1563, to St. Sulpice gives some details of the process (L'Ambassade 
de St. Sulpice, 186, 187). 

= Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, 119, 120. Her letter to her 
daughter in Spain, not in the correspondence, which M. Cable cites in L'Ambassade 
de St. Sulpice, 208, displays real courage. Charles IX said he could not abandon 
Jeanne d'Albret "sans etre vu deserter de ses plus proches parents" (ibid., 247). 
The instructions to Lansac, who was sent to Spain to protest in the name of France 
against the papal action, show fine scorn (ibid., 224). 

3 Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, IV, 327, note. 

4 L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 228: "Reponse de Philippe II au sr. de Lansac 
en sa premiere audience, 18 fev. 1565." 

s Ibid., 247. 



262 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

going before the count of Lara, Spain's representative, at which 
PhiHp was "picque oukre mesure."' The papal party in vain 
implored Lansac to yield, Lansac replied that "la France ne 
pouvait renoncer aux droits qui lui avaient ete reconnus dans tous 
les precedents conciles, et que, plutot que de laisser rien innover 
sur ce point, ' j'etais resolu, selon le commandement de men maitre, 
apres avoir proteste de nuUite de ce concile, de m'en aller incon- 
tinent avec tous les prelats de ntre nation, sans entrer dans aucune 
dispute ne composition.' "^ PhiUp II refrained from making any 
observation to France upon the disputed point^ pending the deci- 
sion of the Pope.'^ But such a course was impossible. The con- 
test over the question became the absorbing topic of conversation 
at Rome. 5 The Pope was between Scylla and Charybdis.^ Spain 
claimed precedence for Phihp II through the crown of Castile — 
"chose peu veritable" — and argued that the services of Philip II 
to the church justified her pretension; to which France rejoined 
that her king was historically first son of the church, the Most 
Christian King, who "had bled and suffered for the preservation 
of the Cathohc religion in his kingdom, for which he had combated 
to the hazarding of his entire state. "^ Finally being compelled 
to decide, Pius IV made a choice in favor of France, to the immense 
chagrin of Philip II who actually fell sick of the humihation and 
recalled his ambassador Vargas from Rome as a sign of his 
displeasure.^ 

1 L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 5. 

2 Letter to St. Sulpice, February 10, 1563, ihid., 115. 

3 Ihid., 135. 

4 Pius IV was so perplexed that he tried to avoid pronouncing in the matter. 
"On avait decide, a la derniere fete de St. Pierre, de supprimer cette ceremonie, 
afin de n'offenser personne." — Charles IX to St. Sulpice, July 24, 1563, ihid., 141. 

s Du Ferrier, French ambassador at Venice to St. Sulpice, April 12, 1564, 
ihid., 252. 

6 Cf. the report of the conversation between Archbishop Cispontin, the papal 
secretary, and D'Oysel {ihid., 273, July, 1564). 

7 "Instructions donnees par Charles IX a L'Aubespine le jeune, envoye en 
Espagne," ihid., 277, June 24, 1564. 

8 Ihid., 279, 281, 282, 299. "It is an error to regard, as most his- 
torians do, the course of the relations of Philip II to the see of Rome as a 
single consistent development, for the earlier part of his reign was dominated by 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 263 

The catalogue of Spain's grievances against France, besides 
the question of religion, the dispute over precedence, and France's 
refusal to accept the findings of Trent which PhiHp II had recog- 
nized^ included still another complaint. This was the border 
difficulty between the Spanish provinces of Artois and Luxembourg, 
and France. It was a complex question, partly religious, partly 
poHtical, partly commercial. Like the Huguenot rebeUion, the 
growing insurrection in the Low Countries was of a double nature 
— religious and political. Each side looked to the other for sym- 
pathy and support and neither was disappointed. The Huguenots 
retaliated for the assistance afforded the government of France 
by Spain during the first civil war by aiding the revolt of the 
Netherlands. This intimate connection of events on each side of 
the line is an important fact to be observed. 

It was in 1563, as Granvella had divined,^ that the intrigues of 

a principle utterly different from that which inspired the latter. In the sixties and 
early seventies the Spanish king devoted himself primarily to the maintenance of 
the principles of the counter-Reformation; he abandoned political advantage in the 
interest of the faith, united with the ancient foes of his house for the suppression 

of heresy, dedicated himself and his people to the cause of Catholicism But 

in the later seventies there came a change. The spirit of the counter-Reformation 
was waning in France: the old political lines of cleavage had begun to reappear; 
Philip began to discover that he was draining his land to the dregs in the interests 
of a foreign power who offered him no reciprocal advantages, and reluctantly 
exchanged his earlier attitude of abject devotion to the interests of the church for 

the more patriotic one of solicitude for the welfare of Spain Viewed from 

the Spanish standpoint, the story of this long development is a tragic but familiar 
one — reckless national sacrifice for the sake of an antiquated ideal, exhaustion in 
the interests of a foreign power, which uses and casts aside but never reciprocates. 
But it adds one more to the already long list of favorable revisions of the older and 
more hostile verdicts on the Spanish monarch. Philip's attitude toward the papacy, 
though not always wise or statesmanlike, was at least far more honorable and loyal 
to the church than it is usually represented (as, for instance, by Philippson): the 
first part of his reign is marked by his single-hearted devotion to the cause of Rome, 
and even at the last that devotion does not falter, though the interests of his country 
forced him to adopt a more national policy toward the papacy than that with which 
he had begun." — R. B. Merriman, Review of Herre, Papsttum und Papstwahl ini 
Zeitalter Philipps II (Leipzig, 1907), in American Historical Revien.v, October, 
1908, pp. 117, 118. 

1 Papiers d'etat die cardinal de GranveUe, VIII, 177, July 30, 1564; R. Q. H., 
1869, p. 403. 

2 Papiers d'etat du cardinal de GranveUe, VII, 669. 



264 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the French Protestants in Flanders became a matter of serious 
apprehension. Valenciennes was the most aggressive city of the 
religion in Flanders, and Margaret of Parma actually was afraid 
of Montigny doing as Maligny had done at Havre. Already the 
prince of Orange was the recognized leader of those who sympa- 
thized with the Huguenots. To this class England's support of the 
prince of Conde, and above all, the assassination of the duke of 
Guise, came as a real stimulus. Valenciennes, Tournay, Antwerp, 
even Brussels were stirred. In May, 1563, the demonstrations of the 
Calvinists at Valenciennes and Tournay became so bold that it 
required six companies of infantry to keep them overawed. But 
this measure, instead of accomplishing the result expected, aggra- 
vated the situation, for the marquis de Berghes, the commander, 
was so ostracized by the nobles, that he lost courage. Philip II 
grew alarmed and wrote to his sister on June 13, 1563, that the 
example of France counseled most drastic suppression. In reply 
the regent and the cardinal Granvella implored Philip to come to 
the Netherlands, but he pleaded ignorance of the language and 
poverty as excuse. Meanwhile the Orange party practiced so 
successfully with the duchess of Parma that she inchned toward 
concihation instead of coercion. This threw the regent and De 
Berghes into ahgnment, who proposed to convoke the States- Gen- 
eral to remedy the evils — a programme which the nobles enthu- 
siastically advocated. 

The similarity between the Flemish movement and the pro- 
gramme of the political Huguenots in France is very close. ' With the 
design of suppressing heresy in its two most active centers, Granvella 
proposed to imitate the method used at Paris, of exacting a pro- 
fession of faith together with a pledge to observe the laws, of all 
citizens who wished to stay in the city. Recalcitrants were to be 
disarmed, compehed to sell their property, one-third of the pro- 
ceeds of which was to be confiscated for the support of the soldiers 
and municipal expenses, and the culprits were then to be banished 

1 Granvella said as much to Philip II, July 14, 1563. See Papiers d'etat du 
card, de Granvelle, VII, 124; cf. Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II siir les 
Pays-Bas, I, 277 (Philip II to Alva, December 14, 1563). 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 265 

from the country. This drastic poUcy called forth a mingled protest 
and threat from the prince of Orange, whose wealth and German 
connections, aside from other quaHties he possessed, gave him 
great influence. The government begged for money and troops, 
"como la liga va cresciendo."' Orange's tactics were to persuade 
the provincial estates to refuse to vote subsidies or to throw the 
weight of the finances upon the church much after the manner of 
things done at Pontoise. This he began to do in Brabant where 
the indefinite postponement of a grant of money provoked mutiny 
among the soldiers. In September De Berghes went out from 
ofiice, having distinguished himself by not putting a single heretic 
to death. The change was immediately followed by the burning 
ahve of a Protestant preacher and the protestations of the quartet. 
Orange, Hoorne, Egmont, and Montigny, became bolder.^ Finally 
the nobles of Flanders resolved to protest to the King of Spain. 
Philip II, always hesitating and undecided, did not respond. To 
a petition which was sent him demanding the recall of the cardinal, 
he rephed by a flat refusal. The nobles showed their offense by 
absenting themselves from the Council of State and used their 
influence to detach the regent from Granvella. At last, after 
months of negotiation, Phihp II yielded. Granvella retired to 
his splendid palace at Besangon in Franche Comte and the nobles 
resumed their seats in the council. But the four were irritated 
at Philip II's delay in responding to their demands for reform. 
It was evident, moreover, by November, 1563, that something 
like a common purpose actuated the chief provinces — Flanders, 
Artois, Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht.^ 

The Calvinists were especially numerous in the Walloon prov- 
inces, and preachers from Geneva and England were active 
among them. The government undertook to restrain their assem- 
blies, and the conflict broke out. This conflict, it is important to 
remark, did not turn upon the question of rehgion in and of itself, 
but upon the manner of treating the heretics. Phihp wanted to 

1 Granvella to Perez, August 6, 1563, Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, 
VII, 177. 

2 Ibid., 231. 3 Ibid., 262. 



266 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

apply the edicts of his father, which required the death penahy 
for heresy; but the government and Spanish officials in the Low- 
Countries, Catholics though they were, were opposed to so severe a 
penalty and would rather have treated those offending as criminals 
than as heretics. But with Philip the extirpation of heresy was a 
question of conscience. 

Valenciennes still remained the most prominent place of dis- 
affection,' but Brussels was much infected.^ But more formidable 
than local spirit was the marked tendency toward a union of the 
provinces^ and the growing interest of the Huguenots in the Dutch 
and Flemish cause,^ so much so that Cardinal Granvella strongly 
hinted at Spanish pressure being forcibly exerted upon France 
for the reduction of the Huguenots.^ The cardinal hoped to see 
Charles IX and his mother more docile in receiving the advice of 
Spain since the withdrawal of Chantonnay, who was made Philip 
II's ambassador at Vienna. But the theft of Alava's cipher by 
the Huguenots threw him into despair.^ The reciprocal con- 
nection between poHtics and religion in France and the Low 
Countries made the Spanish government watch the movement of 
events in France with vigilance.^ So acute was the situation owing 
to Huguenot sympathy with the cause of insurrection across the 
border,^ that although Granvella ridiculed the wild rumor that 
Montgomery was coming to Flanders, he nevertheless apprehended 
the possibihty of a rupture with France and was reheved to know 

1 See Paillard, Histoire^des troubles de Valenciennes, 1560-67. 

2 Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 270. 

3 For proof see ibid., 55, 56, and note. 

4 " Les Huguenots de France soUicitent continuellement ceulx des Pays-Bas 
pourse revolter," writes Granvella to the Emperor on June 3, 1564 {ibid., 18). 

s Ibid., 99; cf. 104, note. 

6 Ibid., 23, 393; L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 5, 275, 280, 284, 300, 305; Cor- 
respondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, 1975. 

7 "Si cela de la religion succede bien en France, les affaires vauldront de 
mieulx." — Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 152, July 15, 1564. 

8 The presence of many Belgian students at the French universities undoubtedly 
contributed to this sympathy. See Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur 
les Pays-Bas, I, 372. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 267 

that precautions had been taken against any chance enterprise 
of the Huguenots along the edge of Artois and Hainault.' 

Margaret of Parma and the nobles sent ambassadors to Spain 
to ask concession on two points: (i) that the provinces be gov- 
erned by native officials; (2) that the punishment of heresy be 
moderated. The King hesitated long. It was not until October 
17, 1565, that he gave decisive pronouncement in dispatches 
issued from Segovia. In them he ordered the maintenance of 
the Inquisition, the enforcement of the edicts, and the impoverish- 
ment of those who resisted. In a word, Philip II would not yield. 
The discontent against the administration of the King of Spain now 
turned against the King himself. WiUiam of Orange used the 
notable words, "We are witnessing the beginning of a great 
tragedy." 

In the face of the growing resistance the duke of Alva strongly 
advised Philip II to convert the towns into fortresses.^ For the 
Flemish cities were, as yet, commercial groups, not fortified burgs. 
With the possible exception of Gravelines, no one of them was 
capable of making a sustained defense. 

This suggestion happened to coincide with the English occu- 
pation of Havre-de- Grace and the possible return of Calais to 
England in return therefor. Such a contingency could but be 
viewed with anxiety by Spain,^ and this fact, coupled with the 
uncertainty of developments in France induced PhiHp to 
follow out Alva's suggestion by strengthening Gravelines. 
France at once became alarmed over Calais and protested in 
the same breath against the building of fortifications at 
Gravelines and the duty upon her wines. "^ In retaliation 
the French government also strengthened the garrisons on the 

1 Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 390, 527, 550, 556, 593. 

2 Ihld., VII, 281. 

3 The counselor d'Assonleville wrote to Cardinal Granvella after the peace of 
Troyes, "Adieu, Callais! conbien qu'elle nous duiroit bien hors de mains des 
Francois!" — Poulet, I, 570. 

^L'Amhassade de St. Sidpice, 191, 194, 209, 221. Each state appointed a 
commission in 1563 to adjust this difficulty and other border complications on the 
edge of Artois and Luxembourg (for instances, see L' Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 



268 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

edge of Picardy, under the direction of the prince of Conde (who 
was governor of the province), to the immense indignation of Spain. ^ 
The Spanish erections around Gravehnes reacted also upon the 
state of things in Flanders. For new and heavier taxation was 
the indispensable point of departure for carrying out such meas- 
ures, "unless one were wilhng to see everything said upon the sub- 
ject vanish in smoke." The sole effective remedy for the state 
of things prevailing in the Flemish provinces was, of course, 
to reorganize the finances and the administration of justice in 
accordance with the demands made by the nobles. But instead 
of attempting to do this, the government aimed to weaken the 
opposition by dividing the leaders, and the long silence of PhiHp II 
covered an attempt to draw away Egmont, who was regarded as 
the ringleader of the Flemish nobles at this time.^ The Spanish 
government dreaded to summon the estates, as Orange insisted 
should be done, for fear of things in Brabant and the other prov- 
inces going the road of things in France under like conditions.^ 
In order, therefore, to provide for funds without asking the 
estates to vote subsidies, over which there was sure to be a conflict, 
the Spanish government in the Netherlands undertook to raise 
the needed money by tariffs. The cloth trade of England and the 
wine trade of France were the two commodities so taxed. In 1563 
a duty was laid on French wine."* In the case of England, the 

224, 227, 228, 240, 254), whose conferences were prolonged through the 
years 1564-65. See the long note in Gachard, Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, 
I, 270. 

In Collection Godefroy, XCIV, No. 16, will be found a "sommaire de la 
negociation de Calais, entre le president Seguier et le conseiller du Faur, deputes 
de Charles IX, et les ambassadeurs de Philippe II;" original, signed by Seguier and 
Du Faur. In the same collection, XCVI, No. 6, is a delimitation treaty pertaining 
to the Picard frontier, signed by Harlay and Du Drac, at Gravelines, December 
29, 1565. Charles IX refused to ratify it. 

^ Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 18. 

2 "Un eslavon tan importante desta cadena." — Ihid., VII, 215. 

3 For Granvella's opinion of the demand for the Estates-General, see his 
letter to Philip II, April 18, 1564 {ihid., 492-94). 

4 Ihid., 294, note, and especially 495-97; cf. UAmbassade de St. Stdpice, 
188, 193. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 269 

excuse given for the high duty placed on imported cloth was pre- 
caution against the plague.' France at once protested against 
the tariff and threatened to retaliate by taxing the herring and cod 
trade, though the Spanish ambassador at Paris, represented that 
such action would entirely destroy the wine trade and would com- 
pel reprisal.^ 

Flemish merchants were doubly alarmed at the state of things, 
for England, too, threatened reprisal by removing the cloth market 
from Antwerp to Embden and imposing tonnage duties on merchant 
ships of Flanders driven by stress of weather into English ports for 
safety during storm.^ But the government in Flanders was obdur- 
ate. Granvella declared England's threat to remove the staple 
to Embden to be "puerile rhodomontade." He beheved that 
not only would the prohibition against the import of EngHsh cloth 
compel EHzabeth to redress the grievances of Spanish subjects 
against England, but that it might even make the EngHsh govern- 
ment more lenient toward the CathoHc religion. Furthermore, 
he argued, the tax would operate like a protective tariff to stimu- 
late the manufacture of cloth in the Low Countries. "If not a 
single bolt of English cloth ever comes into Flanders again," he 
wrote "it will be to the permanent profit of the Pays-Bas. We saw 
this clearly last year during the plague when the prohibition having 
temporarily suspended the importation of this kind of goods, there 
was manufactured in the single county of Flanders 60,000 pieces 
of cloth, or more than the sum total of the three preceding years. "^ 
In the case of French wines the Flemish government even estab- 

1 "Non admettre a couleur de la peste." — Granvella to the duchess of Parma, 
Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 411. 

2 This was a mere threat, however, as such a course would have injured France 
as much as the Netherlands. 

3 See the letter of the president Viglius to Granvella, April 17, 1564, in Papiers 
d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 476; cf. 481. On this whole question, so far 
as England is concerned see Brugmans, England en de Nederland in de eerste 
Jaren von Elizabeth's regeering (1558-67), Groningen, 1892; cf. English Historical 
Review, VIII, 358-60. 

4 Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle. VII, 496, 497. Cf. the observation 
of Assonleville in a letter to Granvella, Poulet, I, 570. The cardinal's prophecy- 
was partially fulfilled (Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 40, 41). 



270 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

lished a maximum law for their sale which cut the throat of 
French merchants worse than ever.' The French government 
carried the action of the Flemish government up to Madrid, 
where for months the duty on wine and the buttresses of 
GraveKnes were matters of repeated interviews between St. Sul- 
pice and the King, and were still unsettled questions at the 
time of the conference at Bayonne.^ Meanwhile the conflict of 
the Flemish reform party became more acute because it became 
compKcated with the question of rehgion. 

In the light of all these circumstances, it is no wonder that 
Phihp II hesitated long before giving his consent to an interview 
with Catherine de Medici. ^ Even then he imposed a number 
of conditions and regulations. He would not go in person to 
Bayonne — the place appointed; his wife was to be accompanied 
by the duke of Alva; display was to be avoided by either side both 
for motives of economy and to prevent having undue political 
significance attached to an interview which was to be understood 
to be purely personal. Phihp II's most striking regulations, how- 
ever, were those which had to do with the French entourage. No 
one in the least tainted with heresy was to accompany the court. 
The queen of Navarre, whom the Spanish King carefully alluded 
to as "Madame de Venddme," the prince of Conde, the admiral, 

1 "Qui est autant que couper la gorge aux marchands." — "Memoire envoye 
pour le roi de France a St. Sulpice," January, 1564, in L' Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 
210. 

2 See "Note du Ministere de France en reponse aux griefs presentes par 
I'ambassadeur d'Espagne" in Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 584-86. 
Other references to this commercial matter are in VII, 62, 164, 375, 411, 476, 481, 
495-97, 584, 668; L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 175, 181, 188, 191, 193, 194, 200, 
206, 209, 210, 213, 217, 221, 224, 304, 350, 351; Papiers d'etat du cardinal de 
Granvelle, VIII, 6-15; 514, 515; Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II siir les 
Pays-Bas, I, 244, 246, 247; Poulet, I, 567, and n. 2. There is a memoir on the 
mission of Assonleville to England, April-June 6, 1563, in the Bulletin de la 
commission royale d'histoire, ser. Ill, I, 456 ff. 

Undoubtedly Spain's harsh commercial policy toward France was also in- 
fluenced in part by jealousy of the commercial relations of France and England, for 
the treaty of Troyes established freedom of trade between the two nations. For 
the great importance of this treaty in the history of commerce see De Ruble, 
Le traits de Cateau-Cambresis, 193-95. 

3 St. Sulpice sent this important information in a letter of January 22, 1565 
L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 338). 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 271 

and the cardinal Chatillon were specifically named with abhorrence. 
The queen mother acquiesced in this prohibition, save in the case 
of the prince of Conde, protesting that, on account of his rank, 
it would give great offense to forbid his presence, as well as create 
belief among the Huguenots that the meeting contemplated some- 
thing disadvantageous to them. History has shown that Cath- 
erine's instincts were perfectly right in this particular; since 
after the massacre of St. Bartholomew the Huguenots — indeed 
almost the whole Protestant world — jumped to the conclusion 
that that disaster was preconcerted at Bayonne. In vain St. Sul- 
pice argued political expediency, saying France and Spain must 
not be judged ahke, and that "experience had proved that the 
way of arms had resulted in more dangers than profit to France." 
Phihp II's answer was metaUically hard; he would not consent 
to the presence either of Jeanne d'Albret or the prince of Conde 
at Bayonne, because it would be a reproach to him and to Spain 
for his wife to have had converse with a heretic.^ 

The last stage of Charles IX's long tour of the provinces was 
from Bordeaux^ to Bayonne^ where the French court arrived on 
May 22, 1565. But that indolence of spirit which is so much 
associated with Spanish character seems as early as the sixteenth 
century to have become habitual,"* so that the Spanish queen was 
forced to travel in the heat (six soldiers of Strozzi's band died with 
their armor on from heat prostration^), which aggravated the plague 
prevaihng in certain parts.^ 

Ibid., 366. Catherine de Medici pushed her insistence perilously far, as- 
serting that Alava, the Spanish ambassador in France, had intimated that objection 
would not be made to the presence of the prince of Conde, since his exclusion might 
endanger the peace. Philip II promptly declared that if Alava had made Catherine 
believe so, he had acted in violation of instructions. "Memoire envoye a Catherine 
sur les reponses du roi catholique," May 7, 1564, in L' Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 375. 

2 Egmont passed through Bordeaux on his way to Spain while the court was 
there {R. Q. H., XXIV, 479), 

3 The reasons for the selection of Bayonne are set forth in R. Q. H., 
XXXIV, 472. 

4 "Les lenteurs .... qui sont habituelles en Esgapne." — V Ambassade de 
St. Sulpice, 363. 

s F. Fr. 20,647, fo'- II- For other details of the preliminaries of Bayonne, 
see U Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 335-38, 347, 350, 351, 353, 354, 357-60, 362, 363, 
366, 374-78, 382. 



272 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

In conferences of state, especially international conferences, 
things of importance are confined within four walls. The six- 
teenth century was par excellence the age of closet politics. The 
world upon the outside saw only the fetes ^ that marked the inter- 
view at Bayonne. But these festivities were no more than the 
flecks or wreaths of ghttering foam that float upon the bosom of 
the water for an instant and then are gone. The real business 
at Bayonne was pohtics. But the great importance for three 
hundred years^ attributed to this famous interview is today 
proved to have had slight foundation in fact. The light of recent 
research has dissipated the traditional belief that Philip II and 
Catherine de Medici planned the massacre of the French Prot- 
estants at Bayonne, and finally consummated it on St. Bartholo- 
mew's Day.3 The truth is that not what was contemplated but 
what was imagined was contemplated at Bayonne became the 
important historical influence of the future. An assumed fact 
came to have all the force of reality. The principals in this 
unfortunate conference, in point of truth, were far apart from 
one another. Philip II's interests were wholly political, and 
personalities were merely incidental to his main purpose. On 
the other hand, the queen mother's interests were chiefly per- 
sonal, being centered in plans to achieve briUiant marriage 

1 Cf. Recueil des chases notables qui ont este jaites a Bayonne-Paris, 1566; and 
the Memoires de Marguerite de Navarre, Book I. 

2 See De Thou, Book XXVII; Mathieu, Histoire de France, I, 283; La Pope- 
Hniere, Book XI, 8. The prince of Orange and WilHam of Hesse both believed 
that the massacre of St. Bartholomew was concerted at Bayonne {Archives de 
la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 507; IV, 108). 

3 Some of the literature upon this famous interview is as follows: E. Marcks, 
Die Zusammenhunft von Bayonne: Das jranzos. Staatsleben u. Spanien in d. J. 
1^63-67, Strassburg, 1889; Combes, Uentrevue de Bayonne de 1565, Paris, 1882; 
Maury, in Journal des savants, 1871; Loiseleur La St. Barthelemy, Paris, 1883; 
Lettenhove, La conference de Bayonne, 1883; La Ferriere, R. Q. H., XXXIV, 457, 
and the same in Carres pondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd.; Philippson, 
U Athenceum beige, July i, 1882; De ,Croze, Les Guises, les Valois et Philippe II ; 
Boutaric, La Saint Barthelemy, d'apres les archives du Vatican (Bib. de VEcole des 
Charles, ser. V, III, i); Raumer, Franhreich und die Bartholamdusnacht, Leipzig, 
1854; Wuttke, Zur Vorgeschichte der Bartholamdusnacht ; Soldan, La Saint Barthe- 
lemy (French trans.), 1854. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 273 

alliances for her children, for whose sake she ruinously com- 
promised herself and France. 

If Catherine had been less vain and less foolishly affectionate, 
she would have striven harder for the solution of things more 
vital to France. It is true she was far from ignoring these issues 
entirely, but she weakened the cause of France in respect to them 
by subordinating these to her main purpose, so that she awakened 
the greater suspicion of Spain by her attempts to avoid answering 
in those matters of most concern to Philip II and by her continual 
harping upon the things that were nearest to her heart, but not 
of most moment either to France or to Spain. When the duke 
of Alva drove her into a corner and compelled her to answer the 
questions he put to her concerning greater politics, Catherine's 
replies were fatal to her aspirations. What were these matters ? 

Alva's instructions were strict. He was to demand the expul- 
sion of the Huguenot ministers from France within thirty days; 
the interdiction of Protestant worship; acceptance of the decrees 
of the Council of Trent; profession of the Cathohc rehgion by all 
office holders.^ This policy of suppression and compulsion out- 
lined by his sovereign was wholly in keeping with his, the duke's, 
own judgment. But with greater penetration and less hesitation 
than Philip 11, Alva recognized clearly the intimate connection 
between the politics of Flanders and the politics of France, and 
favored the adoption of a parallel Hne of conduct at once in the Low 
Countries. He was convinced that France was incapable of mana- 
ging her ovra affairs and was a menace to other states, politically and 
rehgiously.^ The means of repression which Spain had often urged 
had not produced the results desired : they had only delayed the total 
ruin of the nation. Suggestion and insinuation must be replaced by 
a more drastic policy. Assassination was a recognized, perhaps 
a quasi-legitimate pohtical recourse in the eyes of the men of the 
sixteenth century. The old generation of French CathoHcs upon 
whom Spain could rely, the cardinal de Tournon, the duke of 

1 R. Q. H., XXXIV, 483, and n. 2. 

2 For Alva's judgment on the government of France see Papiers d'etat du 
cardinal de GrAnvelle, VII, 276; cf. L' Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 341-43. 



274 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Guise, the marshal St. Andre, had passed away — one of them 
assassinated at the hands of a Huguenot. Tavannes and Vieille- 
ville were reluctant to sacrifice country to reHgion, especially when 
a rival nation would profit thereby. The constable was the only 
old-time figure of prominence remaining, and he could not be 
relied on since the conflict between the marshal Montmorency 
and the cardinal of Lorraine, for he favored the side of his nephews 
and so was beHeved to be not far distant from the party of the 
admiral.' Power had fallen into the hands of the Huguenots, 
whose leaders now excelled in personal force. "The shortest, 
the most expeditious way, is to behead Conde, the admiral, D'Ande- 
lot. La Rochefoucauld, and Grammont," Alva told the duke of 
Montpensier^ and Montluc, the two most earnest French converts 
to this policy.3 

But it was yet a far cry from this cool advocacy of assassina- 
tion of the Protestant leaders to the wholesale slaughter of August 
24, 1572. There is really no positive connection between the 
conference of Bayonne and the massacre of St. Bartholomew.^ 

1 Neg. Tosc, III, 523; R. Q. H., XXXIV, 492-512, n. 4. Alva frankly said 
that he wished the constable were gone with the rest — "el condestable que valiera 
mas que faltara como los otros." — Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 277. 

2 The duke of Montpensier was a notoriously bigoted Catholic. The Venetian 
ambassador said of him: "II quale e tenuto piu atto a governare un monasterio 
di frati che a comandare ad eserciti." — Rel. ven., II, 155. 

3 R. Q. H., XXXIV, 485. Montluc put a memoir in Alva's hands which 
proposed an alliance between the crowns of France and Spain for the purpose of 
crushing the Protestants in France. In event of the French king's refusal to become 
a party to this alliance, Montluc outlined the means of defense which Philip II 
would have to resort to. This memoir is published by the baron de Ruble in 
Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, V, 23 ff. In this striking document the veteran 
soldier, after setting forth his favorite thesis that French Calvinism was anti- 
monarchical in its nature, makes a survey of the religious state of the provinces. 
He concludes that while Protestantism was rampant everywhere in France, in 
five-sixths of the country the Catholics were superior. The place of great danger 
is Guyenne. The mutual safety of France and Spain requires the subjugation 
of this province. France cannot or will not do this alone (cf. Correspondance de 
Catherine de Medicis, 1, 342, n. 3; 343, n. 4). It remains, therefore, for the king of 
Spain to do so. This is the historical argument for all of Montluc's subsequent 
course of treason with Philip II. 

4 This has been triumphantly proved by Count Hector de la Ferriere, who 
has shown that M. Combes, L'Entrevue de Bayonne de Ij6j et la question de St. 
Barthelemy d'apres les archives de Simancas, Paris, 1881, has mistranslated the 
very documents upon which he relied {R. Q. H., XXXIV, 511 ff.). 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 275 

The slaughter of the French Protestants as a sect was never advo- 
cated by any prince in Europe, not even Phihp II. There is no 
evidence at the Vatican of any CathoHc or papal league for the 
extirpation of the Protestants. Such a solution of the rehgious 
problem vi^as not contemplated, save by one person in Europe at 
this time — Pope Pius V. It is this pontiff who has the sinister 
distinction of having advocated general destruction of the Prot- 
estants, rather than a discriminating assassination of the Hugue- 
not leaders.' The most radical action touching the Huguenots 

I Pius V was elected pope January 17, 1566 (see Hilliger, Die Wahl Pius V 
zum Pdpste, 1907). He had been grand inquisitoi before his elevation, and imparted 
a ferocious zeal to the holy office (see Bertelotti, Martiri di Libera Pensero e Vittime 
delta Sta. Inquisizione nei Secoli, XVI, XVII, e XVIII, Rome, 1892). The violence 
of his character and his bigotry led to his committing several acts injurious to the 
Catholic cause, but it was due to him that the Spanish, Venetian, and papal fleets 
defeated the Turks at Lepanto. He wrote on March 28, 1569 to Catherine de 
Medici: "Si Votre Majeste continue, comme elle a fait constamment, dans la 
rectitude de son ame et dans la simplicite de son coeur, a ne chercher que I'honneur 
de Dieu toutpuissent, et a combattre ouvertement et ardemment les ennemis de la 
religion catholique, jusqu' a ce quails soient tous massacres (ad internecionem usque), 
qu'elle soit assuree que le secours divin ne lui manquera jamais, et que Dieu lui 
preparera, ainsi qu'au roi, son fils, de plus grandes victoires: ce n'est que par rex- 
termination entiere des heretiques (deletis omnibus haeritics) que le roi pourra rendre 
a ce noble royaume I'ancien culte de la religion catholique." — Potter, Pie V, 35; letter 
of the Pope to Catherine de Medici, March 28, 1569. The original Latin version 
of this letter, the salient words of which are in parentheses above, is in Epistola 
SS. Pii V, ed. Gouban, III, 154, Antwerp, 1640. The editor was secretary to 
the marquis de Castel-Rodrigio, ambassador of Philip IV to the Holy See. An 
abridged edition was published by Potter, Lettres de St. Pie V sur les affaires 
religieuses de son temps en France, Paris, 1826. The letter is one of congratulation 
written to Catherine de Medici upon the Catholic victory of Jarnac and the death 
of the prince of Conde. (Cf. the letter of April 13, 1569, on p. 156 to the same 
effect.) Nevertheless, even the Pope regarded the total destruction of the French 
Protestants as a result more devoutly to be wished for than practicable. Pope Pius 
V, however, was not the first advocate of destruction, for as early as 1556 Francois 
Lepicart gave the same advice to Henry II: "Le roy devroit pour un temps contre- 
faire le lutherien parmi eux [the Protestants], afin que, prenant de la occasion de 
s'assembler hautement partout, on put faire main-basse sur eux tous, et en purger 
une bonne fois le royaume." — Bayle's Dictionary, art. "Rose." 

The doctrine of assassination for heresy originally proceeded from the mediaeval 
church, in which it can be traced back as far as the beginning of the Crusades. 
Urban II asserted that it was not murder to kill an excommunicated person, pro- 
vided it was done from religious zeal. ("Non enim eos homicidas arbitramur quod 
adversus excommunicatos zelo catholicae matris ardentes, eorum quoslibet trucidasse 



276 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

at large, it may safely be said, that was regarded practicable in 
1564-65 was to forbid and prevent future conversion,' or else the 

contigerit." — Migne, Episiolae Urbani, CLI, No. 122; Mansi, XX, 713; the same 
words are used by Ivo of Chartres, X, 331, and by Gratian in the Decretum [causa 
32, quaestio 2, canon: De neptis].) The passage stands in the revised edition, to 
which Gregory XIII prefixed the injunction that nothing should be omitted, and 
the gloss gives the following paraphrase: "Non putamus eos esse homicidas qui 
zelo justitiae eos occiderunt." 

In 1208 Innocent I-II proscribed the count of Toulouse (Teulet, Tresor des 
Charles, I, 316), and in the same pontificate the Fourth Lateran Council declared 
that the Pope might depose anyone who neglected the duty of exterminating heresy 
and might bestow his state on others (Harduin, Concilia, VII, 19). The same 
canon reappears in the Decreta of Gregory IX (Lib. iv, tit. 7. cap. 13). St. Thomas 
Aquinas declared that the loss of political rights was incurred by excommunication 
(Summa [ed. 1853], III, 51). The teaching that faith need not be kept with a 
heretic was well established by the church in the thirteenth century. It was pleaded 
by the Emperor in the case of Huss — "quoniam non est frangere fidem ei qui Deo 
fidem frangit." — Palacky, Documenta Jodnnis Hussi, I, 540. 

The spirit of this teaching survived in the sixteenth century. In 1561 some 
citizens of Lucca, having embraced the Piotestant belief, were obliged to flee from 
the city. The government of the republic, under suggestion from Rome, passed a 
law on January 9, 1562, that whoever killed one of these refugees, though he had 
been outlawed, yet would his outlawry be reversed; and that if he himself needed 
not this privilege, it could be transferred to another {Archivio storico italiano, X, 
app. 176, 177). On January 20, Pope Pius IV wrote to congratulate the city on this 
pious legislation: "Legimus pia laudabiliaque decretaque civitatis istius Generale 
Consilium nuper fecit ad civitatem ipsam ab omni heresum labe integram con- 

servandam Nee vero quicquam fieri potuisse judicamus, vel ad tuendum 

Dei honorem sanctius, vel ad conservandam vestre patrie salutem prudentius." — 
Ibid., 178, 179. 

When Henry of Valois made oath to respect liberty of conscience in Poland 
he was informed that it would be sin to observe the oath, but that if he broke it, 
the sin of making it would be regarded as a venial offense: "Minor fuit off'ensio, 
ubi mens ea praestandi quae pelebatur, defuit." — Hosii, Opera, II, 367. 

The Ridolfi plot, it may be added, casts a very clear light upon the teaching 
and conduct of Pius V. 

[I owe some of the information given above to a curious accident. In 1899, 
among a number of books which I purchased in London, I found a number of 
fragmentary notes dealing with this question. There is nothing to indicate their 
authorship, but in recognition of the assistance of some scholar to me unknown 
this acknowledgment is made. It may be added that the books purchased dealt 
with France in the fourteenth century]. 

I This was Montluc's idea, which he broached both to the cardinal of Lorraine 
and Philip II, in the form of an edict which he himself improvised, and which we 
know that the king of Spain actually read {C onimentaires el lettres de Montliic, IV, 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 277 

wholesale exile of the Huguenots from the realm. ^ The alternative 
of total destruction was not contemplated anywhere in Europe or 
at any time, except in the single case mentioned. 

No such crime as the massacre of the Huguenots was planned 
at Bayonne, nor perpetrated as the result of that conference. The 
principals in the case were too far apart in intention and conviction 
for so gigantic a programme. The paramount purpose of the 
queen mother was to marry Charles IX to the elder daughter of 
the Emperor, Margaret of Valois to Don Carlos, and the duke of 
Orleans (the future Henry III) to Donna Juana, Philip II's sister. 
But Alva was crafty. By a series of adroit questions which tan- 
talized her hopes and preyed upon her fears, he compelled Cath- 
erine de Medici to commit herself upon the very political issues 
which she wished to avoid discussing, until she was hopelessly 
compromised. In vain she doubled Hke a fox pursued by the 
hounds and tried to throw the duke off upon a false 
scent. 

"France must be cleared of this vicious sect," said Alva. In 
order to avoid replying, Catherine attempted, by a question, to 
turn the conversation to the subject of a universal league, whether 
it should be against the Turk or against the heretic. Alva was not 
thrown off. The queen resorted to sarcasm. 

"Since you understand the evil from which France is suffering 
so well," she said, "tell me the remedy." 

Alva sidestepped the direct shot, by suavely rejoining: 

"Madame, who knows better than yourself?" 

"The King, your master," said Catherine ironically, "knows 
better than I everything that passes in France. What means 
would he employ to overcome the rebellious Protestants ?" 

Alva resorted to the Socratic method, hoping to involve the 
queen m the toils of argument. 

359-62. There are two Spanish translations of the first document in the Archives 
nationales. Philip indorsed the letter to Bardaxi in his own handwriting: "la 
carta para el cardinal de Lorena." — Ibid., IV, 362, note. 

I Papier s d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, IX, 306; Gachard, Correspondance 
de Philippe II sm les Pays-Ba?, I, 368; letter of Margaret of Parma to Antonio 
Perez, September 27, 1565. 



278 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

"Has the religion gained or lost since the peace of Amboise ?" 
he inquired insidiously. 

"It has gained," rephed she. 

The answer, in Spain's eyes, was a condemnation of the policy 
of France; it was a thorn in the road of the queen's ambitious 
hopes of marriage alHance. In her exasperation, Catherine 
upbraided her daughter for out-Spaniarding the Spaniard. 

"I am a Spaniard, I admit," said Elizabeth. "It is my duty."' 

Catherine broached anew the possibility of Philip II consenting 
to have his sister marry her Benjamin — Henry duke of Orleans — 
and conferring Artois as dowry upon the pair. 

" The king would never consent to sacrifice one of his provinces," 
said Alva brusquely. 

" But to give a Spanish province to the duke of Orleans," argued 
the queen mother, blinded by maternal affection, "would be the 
same then as giving it to his own brother." 

Alva taxed the queen with maintaining a heretic, L'Hopital, 
in the chancellorship, and of opposing the Tridentine decrees. 
Catherine emphatically denied the first charge, although her 
daughter again supported Alva's indictment by declaring that 
even during the life of her father, L'Hopital had passed for a Hugue- 
not; as to the second, she said the crown of France objected to 
the political application of certain findings of the Council of Trent, 
which she hoped to have adjusted. Alva saw the vulnerable 
point in her reply and inquired if she aimed to call another assembly 
like the Colloquy of Poissy. 

"I recognize the danger of such assemblies," said Catherine, 
"but the king, my son, is strong enough to compel discussion only 
of those subjects which he may designate." 

"Was it so at Poissy?" sneered Alva. 

I The monotony of life and the tyranny of Spanish etiquette must have borne 
hard upon the little queen of Spain. But in the midst of the miseries of this "royal 
slavery," as M. le comte de la Ferriere calls it, it was a crowning humiliation to be 
condemned to be the instrument of Philip's political intrigues. That her young 
spirit rebelled, though hopelessly, against the stiuation is evident, from a pitiful 
letter written by her to her brother's ambassador in Spain (La Ferriere, Rapport, 
28). 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 279 

The queen's reply was a tirade against the cardinal of Lorraine, 
whom she blamed for the failure of the colloquy. 

In the end there was a promise given by the queen mother at 
Bayonne. But it was verbal, not written, and so governed by 
circumstances that the edge of Spain's intentions was dulled. 
Compromising the agreement certainly was; convicting it is not, 
for, aside from the fact that its fulfilment was dependent upon an 
impossible condition of things, Catherine never permitted herself 
to express in writing what the terms of this promise were. Our 
knowledge of it is dependent upon Alva's letters of June 15 and 
July 4; upon Philip II's construction of it in a letter addressed by 
him to the cardinal Pacheco^ on August 24, 1565, and the dispatch 
of the Venetian ambassador Suriano, who was with the French 
queen, to the senate on July 22, supplemented by what information 
St. Sulpice picked up during the last days of his mission in Spain. 

It is evident from the careful reading of these documents that 
the real triumph at Bayonne was scored by the papacy; that 
Spain won a sterile victory, and France met an indecisive defeat. 
Spain and France, being unable to carry their own purpose through 
as each desired, compromised on a course which was an intermedi- 
ate plane of agreement to them, but which, according to the letter, 
was a supreme triumph for Rome, and would have been a com- 
plete victory for Rome if the terms had ever been executed. The 
man of the hour was the cardinal Santa Croce, nuncio in France. 
His services are thus reported by the Venetian ambassador in 
France on July 2 : 

On the eve of departure, the queen, perceiving the discontent of the duke 
of Alva, summoned the nuncio, who wz.s not far away, to Bayonne, in order 
to have him at hand. It is he who has found a solution; he has satisfied both 
parties. I shall be able to inform you shortly as to the nature of his solution.^ 

Three weeks later (July 22) the promised word was sent to 
Venice in the form of a cipher dispatch, ^ the information in which 

1 On Cardinal Pacheco see Poulet, I, 7, note and Index. 

2 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., Ixxxiii, Ixxxiv. 

3 The key to it was discovered in 1885. Suriano had been Venetian envoy at 
Trent. He was not the regular ambassador of the senate in France and his 
dispatches seem to have been in another key from that of Marc Antonio Barbaro 
the accredited ambassador. 



28o THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

had been communicated to him in strictest secrecy.^ This 

intensely important document reads as follows: 

Now that I have received positive information, I shall tell everything to 
your Signory that has happened. Since his arrival, the duke of Alva has not 
ceased to urge the queen to give his master a manifestation of her good virill 
toward the cause of religion by some manifest act, and he had urged her to 
cause the decisions of the Council of Trent to be observed throughout the whole 
realm of France, for which his Catholic majesty would show his satisfaction. 
The queen had yielded readily to this proposition and had told him that she 
was very inclined to convene an assembly of prelates, of theologians, and 
savants, to examine the decisions made at Trent, without occupying them- 
selves with doctrine, but confining themselves to the reform of abuses. 
The duke had found this offer strange and had not concealed his 
discontent over it. According to him, this was to oppose a council to a 
council, which would be the worst of results and mightily displease the king 
his master. Since he urged the necessity of this measure, before passing to 
any other consideration, and was so obdurate, the queen, being very pained 
to see him depart so unsatisfied, and things being so desperate, notified the 
nuncio, who was not lodged at Bayonne like all the ambassadors, and ordered 
the mareschal de logis of the palace to prepare accommodation for him and 
to have him come immediately. He came at once and being informed by the 
queen, went to find the duke, but was very badly received by him. The duke 
blamed and reproached him for not remaining firm in his opinion. The queen 
holding to the idea of this assembly of prelates and theologians, and the duke 
opposing it, the nuncio found another expedient which seemed to give satisfac- 
tion to all. He broached it to the queen, and with her consent communicated 
it to the duke. This remedy, at the twelfth hour, was very opportime. 
It is this: This assembly shall be held: but under certain conditions. The 
first is that the persons chosen to participate in it shall be of such influence 
as to be able to demand that no Huguenot shall sit in it; secondly, the 
assembly must conform to that which the queen had at first proposed; 
that is to say, all disputes over dogma and doctrine shall be forbidden. 
The queen, having accepted this, authorized the nuncio to commimi- 
cate her consent to the duke, who showed himself satisfied. Both of them 
then came together to find the queen again, and on the next day, in the presence 
of the queen of Spain, the cardinal Bourbon, the marshal Bourdillon, and 
the leading nobles, the whole was confirmed. 

Great benefit can come from this: by eliminating everything that pertains 
to dogma, and avoiding doctrinal difficulties, all the other resolutions 
which are of less importance will be strengthened, especially as the 

I Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., Ixxxv. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 281 

Huguenots, the only ones who can give trouble will be excluded. There is 
no doubt about both the king and the queen being disposed to the Catholic 
religion, since they have given proofs of it. I am, moreover, assured by what 
the queen has said, that there is no intention to touch any of the privileges of 
the Holy See, nor, per contra, any of the concessions made by the popes to the 
kings who were predecessors of the king now reigning. The execution of this 
convention thus arranged is not to take place until the return of the king 
to Paris. 

The King of Spain, in the letter cited to Cardinal Pacheco, 
expressed his contentment with this agreement,' not perceiving 
that the application of it was capable of a great amount of flexi- 
bility. In his blindness he thought that the nuncio had broken 
the loaf so as to give the greater portion to Spain; while in reality 
the greater part was in the hands of the Pope, Philip II having 
actually but the difference between a fragment and no bread. In 
fine, no plot was entered into at Bayonne; no crime was ever 
committed in pursuance of an agreement arranged there. The 
"plot" agreed upon at Bayonne between Catherine de Medici 
and Philip II of Spain consisted of an ambiguous promise, the 
fulfilment of which was dependent upon an impossible condition 
of things.^ 

The affair of Bayonne was not a crime; it was a colossal 
blunder. The destruction of the ambitious marriage expecta,- 

^ Combes, 47. 

2 "For a whole fortnight Catherine resisted the pressure of her daughter and 
the Spanish envoys, who found support in the drastic proposals of the leaders of 
the French Catholics. Within the last three days of the interview, however, con- 
cessions were made which satisfied Alva and his master, though Granvella and 
Alva exhibited some skepticism. The queen was prompted, .... not by Alva's 
alleged threat that the King must lose his crown, or his brother Henry his head, but 
merely by her fear that the total failure of the interview would hinder the attain- 
ment of her ends. These concessions consisted in the engagement to accept the 
decrees of the Council of Trent and in an enigmatical promise of punishment or 
remedial measures. The latter, however, probably did not refer to the judicial 
murder or assassination of the Huguenot leaders — a scheme suggested by Mont- 
pensier's confessor and welcomed by Alva — but to the expulsion of the ministers and 
subsequent enforcement of orthodoxy. The execution of these measures was 
postponed until the conclusion of the journey, but it seems probable that Catherine 
never seriously intended an act which would have been the inevitable sign of civil 
war." — Armstrong in English Historical Review, VI, 578, 579 (review of Marcks, 
Die Zusammenkimjt von Bayonne, Strasburg, 1889). 



282 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

tions of the Valois was the least loss. The irreparable thing 
was that France forfeited the confidence of her Protestant 
subjects. The secrecy that enveloped the conference made the 
Huguenots apprehensive of the worst. They believed that a 
Franco- Spanish alliance was made at Bayonne for their over- 
whelming; and the second civil war was the outcome of their 
misgivings.' And when finally, for other reasons, the massacre 
of St. Bartholomew befell them, not merely Protestant France but 
Protestant Europe was convinced that the false hypothesis had 
been demonstrated. The count Hector la Ferriere admirably 
summarizes the situation: 

To maintain and loyally to adhere to the edict of pacification; to open to 
the daring sailors of France the Indies and America, which Spain and Portugal 
were endeavoring to close to them; and finally to rally Catholics and Protestants 
under the same banner against the foreigner — this was the only true French 
policy. The Spaniard at this time was the enemy of France. She encount- 
ered him everywhere in her path; at Rome, at Vienna, at the Council of Trent 
he disputed her precedence; in Switzerland by gold and by the menaces of his 
agents he interfered with the renewals of the French treaties with the Catholic 
cantons; at the very time when Catherine and Elizabeth of Valois were ex- 
changing false promises of alliance and friendship, Menendez was saiHng for 
Florida, bearing orders for the massacre of all the French foimd there. ^ 

1 For example La Noue, chap, xii (1567). 

2 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, 509, 510; R. Q. H., XXXIV. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES {Continued). THE INFLUENCE 

OF THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS UPON 

FRANCE. THE AFFAIR OF MEAUX 

From the field of Philip II's empty victory the court resumed 
its pilgrimage, crossing the Loire and traversing Guyenne which 
was "in good repose," visiting Angouleme, Cognac, Saintes, 
La Rochelle, and Niort en route to Nantes. The country was the 
veritable dominion of Calvinism in France, but as yet the Hugue- 
nots let their hopes belie their fears. ^ The progress through the 
western provinces was purposely slow, for Catherine still hoped 
against hope that Fourquevaux, who had succeeded St. Sulpice 
at the Spanish court, might persuade Philip II to think more favor- 
ably of her matrimonial schemes,^ until finally, late in December, 
the bitter truth came out ; only the younger daughter of the Haps- 
burgs might marry a Valois, even though he was king of France. 
The queen mother had been weighed in the balance by Catholic- 
Hapsburg Europe and had been found wanting. Then it was 
that Catherine turned her eyes toward eastern Europe in the hope 
of finding in Poland a recompense for the fondled and despicable 
Henry of Valois. Strange are the vicissitudes of history! The 
effect of Philip II's resolution was to put a mountebank on the 
throne of Poland and cast Marguerite of Valois into the arms of 
the son of Jeanne d'Albret.^ 

Long before this time, however, Spain had begun to be impatient 
for the fulfilment of the compact of Bayonne. But procrastina- 
tion was Catherine's trump suit. She averred that the plague 

1 " Tous les bruis que Ton fayst courer ne sont pas vray . . . . Et y a tent de 
noblese au demourant que tou les souir a la sale du bal je panseres aystre a Baionne 
si j'y voyais reine ma fille," writes Catherine to the duke of Guise {Correspon- 
dance de Catherine de Medicis, II, 315). 

2 Fourquevaux, I, 6, November 3, 1565. Cf. Correspondance de Catherine 
de Medicis, II, 326 — Catherine to Fourquevaux, November 28, 1565. 

3 For the beginnings of Catherine's negotiations in Poland see Correspondance 
de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., cv, 404; Capefigue, 412 ff. 

283 



284 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

was too prevalent to make it safe for the court to return to Paris 
until winter/ and when the cold weather diminished the danger 
from that source, pleaded the poverty and famine of the realm 
as an excuse.^ It was an excuse the vahdity of which was every- 
where manifest. France truly had been in the dire pangs of hunger 
and intense cold during the celebrated winter of 1564-65.3 Claude 
Haton, the priest-historian of Provins, who was a close observer 
of meteorological phenomena has given a graphic description of 
this season. 

The winter at its commencement in November [he says] was very mild 
and was so until December 20, the vigil of St. Thomas the apostle, without 
either cold or frost in the mornings. The rain was so warm that it was thought 
that the winter would be mild and open, but on the vigil of St. Thomas there 
came a great cold, accompanied in the morning by a cold rain, which by mid- 
day turned into snow, and which fell all the rest of the day in so great abundance 
. that the earth, which was very wet, was covered on the morrow to the depth of a 
foot, king's measure, and more, with snow. With this snow came a northeast 
wind, which froze everything under a coating of thick ice. This cold con- 
tinued down to the last day of December. The ice was so thick that a man 
could cross the river without breaking through. The snow lay so heavy upon 
the fields that in the open places the drifts were as high as a man. After the 
snow-storm had passed the cold redoubled, so that even the best clad suffered 
whenever they went out doors. There was not a house in the village where 
the water did not freeze, if it was not set close by the fire; and I do not ex- 
aggerate when I say that in many good and well-built houses wine froze before 
the great chimney, though the latter was heaped up with wood. I saw in 
many houses iron pots suspended above the fire with icicles hanging over the 
edge. Every night and morning when the people got up there was frost upon 
the coverlet, from the evaporation of the bodies of the sleepers. There was 
not a wine-cellar where the wine did not freeze in the casks, unless care was 
taken to keep charcoal fires burning there. In some wine-cellars it was 
necessary to close every aperture in order to prevent the wine from freezing. 
It frequently froze so hard that it was necessary to pierce the bung-hole with 
a red hot poker in order to draw it out. On the night of the 23-24 December, 
as also on Christmas night, the ice was so hesivj upon the trees that the boughs 

1 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, 320. 

2 "C'est la rarete at la cherte des vivres qui nous chasse," said Catherine to the 
Venetian ambassador (cited by La Ferriere, Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, 
II, Introd., cii). 

3 See the rhyme upon it in L'Estoile, ed. Michaud, series 2, Vol. I, p. 17. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 285 

were broken. These things had not been seen in France since the year 1480.^ 
The greatest cold was on the day of the feast of the Innocents (December 
28). Many men who were exposed died in the roads. The crests of cocks 
and poultry were frozen and fell off some days afterwards, and many were 
found dead under their roosts. The sheep also died. 

Early in January the ice began to melt. It grew uncommonly warm for 
the season, so that fire became unnecessary. On the day following the edict 
of the king, about noon, a soft warm rain began to fall, which caused the snow 
to vanish rapidly. This lasted for five days, so that the earth was covered 
with water. And then came a second cold for three entire weeks, until the 
28th of the month, and snow with a high wind came, which drove the snow 
everywhere and piled it in great drifts. The winter grain was frozen in the 
furrows. God knows how much the poor people who had no wood suffered. 
Most of them stayed in bed night and day without getting up except to eat once 
in twenty-four hours. The poor of Paris and others who had no means, were 
compelled to bum their furniture. Those who had made no provision for the 
winter, chiefly of wood, were compelled to purchase at high prices, for it was 
not possible to do carting because of the condition of the roads; in many cases, 
moreover, the bridges were destroyed. When the thaw came, the high waters 
penetrated houses and churches in Provins to the depth of three, four, and 
even five feet, washing out the very dead in the cemetery.^ At Paris the flood 
damaged the Pont-au-Change and caused many houses to topple. Vine- 
growers found themselves in great difficulty. Those who were wise cut their 
vines back to the root, in order that they might sprout better again, and were 
repaid for so doing, for they were the only ones that bore. 

The spring was fair and mild, so that barley and oats were sown. Yet 
much ground lay bare because in the fields sown with winter wheat the roots 
were all killed, so that no grain grew. The walnut trees seemed to be dead 
through all the month of April and half of May, for they did not put forth 
their buds. Pear and apple trees bore a few blossoms. In some places there 
were plums and cherries, but not everywhere. ^ 

1 Cf. Babinet de Rencogne, "Sur un debordement de la Charente et la cherte des 
vivres en 1481," Bull, de la Soc. art., etc., 1S60, 36 ser., II, 3 (Angouleme, 1862). 

2 Cf. Boutiot. "Notes sur les inondations de la riviere de Seine a Troyes 
depuis les temps les plus recules jusqu' a nos jours," Annuaire admin, pour 1864 
(Troyes), p. 17. 

8 Claude Haton, I, 395-98. This statement, even if there were no other 
evidence, is confirmed for the south of France by the court's experience in the 
foothills of the Pyrenees in January, 1565 (cf. Hist, du Languedoc, V, 465). For 
the west of France see Chroniques Fontenaisiennes (Paris, 1841), 84, 85, and the 
"Journal de Louvet," published in the Revue d'Anjou in 1854. One quotation 
may suffice: "Au mois de febvrier, il tomba sy grande quantite de neige au pais 



286 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The winter was just as bad in Gascony, Provence, and Langue- 
doc. On the day of the Feast of St. John the Baptist (June 24) 
it snowed 1"^ Even the poor people were compelled to build fires, 
though they could not afford the fuel. The vines throughout 
central France were so badly injured that not a third part of 
the crop remained. The grain likewise was destroyed. Water 
courses were swollen and overflowed their banks, and in the mea- 
dows of the Seine people had to take care lest they be drowned. 
As a result of the cold spring, the harvest of 1565 failed over almost 
all the realm to such an extent that it was necessary to abolish the 
tolls between provinces and to permit free trade in grain. Paris 
imported wheat from Champagne, Picardy, Anjou, Lower Brittany, 
Burgundy, and Auvergne, the least stricken of the provinces.' 
The Parlement of Paris passed an ordinance forbidding specula- 
tion in foodstuffs and compelled those possessed of a surplus of 
grain to throw what was not needed for their own necessity upon 
the market.^ A measure {hoisseau) of wheat, from January to 
April cost from 12-15 sous ( = ij pecks at from 36 to 45 cents), and 
after April the price rose every week until harvest time, to the sum of 
25 sous tournois (approximately 75 cents). Wheat was very dear in 
Paris and throughout all Brie, the Ile-de-France, Valois, Soissonais, 
and Picardy; less so in Champagne, Burgundy, and Lorraine, 
where there was rye and barley enough for the people. The stock 
starved because the grain was consumed by the people. Many 
people went over into Champagne in order to purchase rye and 
barley to make bread with until the harvest came. Fortunately 
grain was plentiful in Champagne, and wheat fell to 7 and 6 sous 

d' Anjou et fust I'hyver si froid, que les rivieres furent glacees et qu'on marchoit 
et passont par-dessus, et que tous les lauriers et romarins gelerent, et qu'au degel 
les eaux crurent et furent si grandes qu'elles rompirent des arches, ponts et chaus- 
sees, et fust ceste annee appelee I'annee du grand hyver." I know of no article 
upon this subject as a whole. M. Joubert, Etude siir les miseres de V Anjou aux 
XV^ et XVIe siecles, 1886, pp. 35 and 161, has a little to say. The subject 
deserves treatment. The sources of course are almost wholly local. 

1 Claude Haton, I, 331. 

2 Idem, I, 409. 

3 Catherine's order to the marshal Montmorency, as governor of Paris, dated 
November 19, 1565, is in Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, 325. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 287 

per measure (from 19 to 22 cents), and corn in like propor- 
tion after the harvest. Because of the hard times which they had 
experienced, many accumulated great stores in the expectation 
that in a short time there would again be a dearth. 

Wine was very dear until the vintage. In the months of August and 
September before the grapes were gathered, it was not possible to purchase 
wine by the cup at taverns, even for silver; it was with great difficulty that 
sufficient wine was procurable for church service. But after the vintage the 
price dropped to 14 livres tournois ($8 . 70) la queue du creu, whereas it had 
been as high as 80 before ($49.60).'' 

As so often appears elsewhere in history, the economic distress 
and strain of poverty was followed by psychological manifestations 
of a religio-sociological sort, among the lower and poor classes. 
In 1565, in the villages of Champagne and Brie and especially 
in the bailiwicks of Sens, Melun, Montereau, Nogent, Troyes, 
Chalons, Rheims, Epernay, Chateau-Thierry, Meaux, and Provins, 
the belief spread among the peasantry that in honor of the Virgin 
they ought to refrain from working in the fields on Saturday after 
midday, and that this Saturday rest had been formally ordered 
by the Virgin in revelations and apparitions. A young girl of 
Charly-sur-Marne, near Epernay, boasted of having received 

I The authorities of Provins made requisition of the grain possessed by private 
persons and appropriated all save that which was necessary for the owners, which 
was sold to the townspeople at the maximum price of 20 sous per boisseau. The 
abbot of St. Jacques and the prior of St. Ayoul baked bread to be distributed to the 
poor. One of the wealthy citizens from Easter till harvest made daily distribution 
of bread to more than three hundred poor, besides furnishing them with work 
(Claude Haton, I, 409). 

The boisseau (Med. Latin, boissellus [Du Cange, s. v.]) was an ancient measure 
of capacity equivalent to 13.01 litres, approximately 12 quarts. In remote parts of 
France the term is still sometimes used to indicate a decalitre. The boisseau was 
used for both dry and liquid measure. On the other hand the bichet (Med. Latin, 
hisselus and busellus, whence the English bushel) was a dry measure, representing 
from one-fifth to two-fifths of a hectolitre (from 4.4 to 8.8 gallons) according to 
the province. The setter, was a larger dry measure of 6 pecks (Paris measure). 
The muid (Latin modius) also was of variable capacity. That of Paris equaled 
36 gallons. The queue du creu was a large wooden cask, about equivalent to a 
hogshead and a half, and was used only for wine. The calculations of terms of 
American money are on the theory that the livre tournois in 1565 was equivalent 
to 3. II francs, according to the estimate of the vicomte d'Avenel in Revue des 
deux mondes, June 15, 1892, p. 795. 



288 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

these confidences, and showed miraculous signs of her mission. 
But the cardinal of Lorraine caused her to be arrested and ques- 
tioned, and she was burned alive as a witch. ' 

Instead of going to Paris, the court passed the winter at Moulins 
in Bourbonnais,'' where the famine was most slightly felt. By 
this time the expectations of the Catholics and the fears of the 
Huguenots were beginning to bear their bitter fruit, and in the 
state of pubhc tension every incident was magnified. At Angers, 
in November, the Rohans, having forbidden Catholic worship 
upon their domains, the King had had to compel them to rein- 
state it by threatening to dispossess them of their chateaux; at 
Blois the cardinal Bourbon reproached the queen mother for 
suffering the edict to be violated by permitting the queen of Navarre 
and the prince of Conde to maintain court-preachers in their 
entourage. The Catholics of Dijon demanded that in future 
Calvinist ministers be forbidden to attend the last hours of the 
dying, a petition which the cardinal of Lorraine suppQrted in order 
to make the chancellor L'Hopital commit himself. The answer 
of the latter sustained the edict's grant of the right of selection in 
the matter of religion. Of greater anxiety still was the influx of 
Huguenots into the town of Moulins, Montgomery among the 
rest, who for the first time since the fatal tournament of June 
30, 1559, looked upon the court. ^ 

The memory of the conspiracy of Amboise haunted the queen 
like a specter, and was the more vivid because of the rapproche- 

1 Claude Haton, I, 418. For information on this subject see Reuss, La sor- 
.cellerie au 16^ et au ly Steele, particulierement en Alsace d'apres des documents en 

partie inedits; Jarrin, La sorcellerie en Bresse et en Bugey (Bourges, 1877); Plister, 
"Nicolas Remy et la sorcellerie en Lorraine a la fin du XVIe siecle," Revue hist., 
XCVII, 225. 

2 "Molins e citta, ed a posta vicina all' Alier, sopra il quale ha un ponte; e 
la principale del ducato di Borbon. Vi e un bellissimo palazzo, fabbricato gia dai 
duchi di Borbon, posto in fortezza, con bellissimi giardini e boschi e fontane, e 
ogni delicatezze conveniente a principe. Tra le altre cose vi e una parte dove vi 
si teniano de infinite sorte animali e ucelli, delli quali buona parte e andata de male; 
pur vi restano ancora molti francollini, raolte galline d'India, molte starne, e altre 
simil cose; e vi son molti papagalli vi diverse sorte." — Rel. ven., I, 32, 34. 

3 When the court was a Blois so great was the number of strangers that the 
Knights of the Order made a house-to-house canvass. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 289 

ment between the leaders of the Huguenots and the Montmorencys, 
who had met together at Paris in November at the marriage of 
the amorous prince of Conde to Mile, de Longueville. The inci- 
dent was sharp enough to strike fire between the Catholic- Guisard 
and the Huguenot-Montmorency party. For when the papal 
nuncio indignantly demanded the cardinal of Beauvais' renunci- 
ation of the purple, the constable bluffly said: "I am a papist. 
But if the Pope and his agents still seek to trouble the kingdom, 
my sword will be Huguenot. My nephew will never renounce his 
dignity. The edict gives him the right to it." It is no wonder 
Catherine de Medici was anxious to hear of the report of these 
words at Madrid and what Philip II would say.^ The interdiction 
of the Protestant worship at Moulins on January 9, 1566, on the 
very day that Coligny returned from the wedding festivities, was 
her own reply. 

The very next day she guarded against new fire being struck 
between the factions by compelling at least outward reconciliation 
between the admiral and the cardinal of Lorraine. On January 

10, 1566, in the presence of the court, she addressed the cardinal, 
saying that the repose of the kingdom was destroyed by private 
quarrels and especially by two of his, the one with the marshal 
Montmorency, the other with the admiral for the murder of the 
duke of Guise. ^ At the same time the queen mother, in order 
to preserve peace between the rivals, hit upon the novel scheme 
of lodging the cardinal and the admiral in the same house, so that 
each had to use the same stairway in order to reach his apartments, 
telling both that each was keeper of the other, and that if either 
of them experienced any injury it would be imputed to the other. ^ 

1 C. S. P. For., anno 1565, p. 524; cf. Neg. Tosc, III, 523. For details upon 
the history of the six months between July and January, see Correspondance de 
Catherine de Medicis, II, Ixxxvii-cv. 

2 C. S. P. For., anno 1566, No. 17. Before the end of the month the old scores 
were officially "shelved" by decrees of the King in council (January 29 and 31, 
1566). Many of the sources allude to this hypocritical reconciliation: De Thou, 
V, Book XXIX, 184; Poulet I, 125 — letter of Granvella from Rome; D'Aubigne, 

11, 223-25; C. S. P. For., No. 57, January 29, 1566; Castelnau, Book VI, chap. ii. 

3 C. 5. P. For., No. 41, January 23, 1566. 



290 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The cardinal of Lorraine, for fear of losing all his influence, ac- 
cepted the situation (he did not stir from the side of the queen), ^ 
and was compelled to abide by the situation telle quelle^ as Sir 
Thomas Smith wrote to Cecil. ^ But nothing could mollify the 
anger of the constable against the Guises, and when the duke of 
Guise at length came to court in February, Montmorency left it 
forthwith.3 

While the factional feeling thus grew more embittered, serious 
and noble effort was yet made to carry out the demands of the 
States- General of Orleans and Pontoise — demands which were 
principles of the political Huguenots. This programme was 
supported by the queen mother, who seems in this way to have 
sought to placate the fears of the Huguenots for their faith. The 
year 1566 is notable for the fact that greater recognition was then 
accorded the political demands of the Huguenots than at any time 
hitherto, so that large progress was made in the betterment of the 
administrative system of France. 

The King in his address to the council said that at his accession 
he had wanted to travel through all the provinces desolated by 
the late civil wars, in order to hear the complaints of his subjects 
and to remedy conditions in the best manner possible; that it was 
for this cause that he had convoked the assembly and so enjoined 
them, in virtue of the royal authority, to apply themselves dili- 
gently to affairs. 

Then the chancellor spoke: after dwelling upon the general 
evils of the state, he asserted that the root of all the evils was the 
bad administration of justice; that the King had become convinced 
of this in the course of the tour of the provinces; that for himself 
he could not refrain from calling things by their right name and 
from speaking as he thought; that those who were appointed to 
administer justice were guilty of great excesses; that these evils 
had increased owing to the impunity and the license which obtained. 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 120, February 22, 1566. 

2 Ibid., No. 150, March 6, 1566. 

3 Ibid., No. 136, February 25, 1566. "The constable lies at Chantilly 
ill at ease." — Ibid., No. 406, May 21, 1566. Poulet, I, 190, Morillon to Granvella, 
March 5. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 291 

I do not deny [he added] that there are too many laws and ordinances in 
France and that the multitude of the laws and the number of the judges is the 
cause of much unnecessary and tyrannical litigation. But it is no less true 
that when new evils arise there is a necessity of new remedies, and that when 
the ancient laws have been abrogated either by inobservance or by license, it is 
necessary to make new ones in order to cure current evils and to arrest the 
course of public calamity. The pubUc welfare requires new legislation. If 
the new laws are not observed, on account of the venality and avarice of the 
ministers of justice, they must be punished severely and these public pests who 
fatten upon the blood of a miserable people must be driven from office. Super- 
fluous offices, moreover, must be abolished and the ruinous multiplication of 
legal causes stopped. 

The justice of the last charge was particularly manifest. Since 
the time of Francis I it had been the practice of the crown to 
sell offices and even to create them for purposes of revenue 
only. 

The chancellor further asserted that the King could not suffer 
those who had not the right to make laws to attribute to themselves 
the power to interpret them; he proposed to diminish the excess- 
ive number of the courts, and raised the question whether the 
demands of justice would not be better met if the Parlement ceased 
to be so sedentary and became ambulatory instead — a suggestion 
which, it is interesting to observe, found a partial realization in 
the seventeenth century in the establishment of the Grands Jours 
d'Auvergne. He insinuated that it was advisable to subject the 
judges to censure and to compel them to render account of the 
manner in which they exercised their office, and that it might be 
better to establish judges for two or three years than to permit the 
holding of office in perpetuity. 

After longer dehberation, in February, 1566, the famous 
ordinance of Moulins was framed. It contained eighty-six 
articles, and dealt radically with the evils of the time and 
imposed drastic reform, especially in the administration of 
justice. 

This act declared the royal domain inalienable, limited and regulated the 
right of remonstrances of parlement, organized circuits of inspection by 
magistrates especially appointed to go throughout the realm, instituted certain 



292 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

changes in the judicial administration, and pledged the word of the crown to 
appoint capable and honest magistrates.^ 

It profoundly modified both the pubHc and private law of 
France. In the former sphere the ordinance strengthened the 
legislative power of the crown by laying down the principle that 
the King's ordinances must be observed in spite of remonstrances 
on the part of the parlements, and even if the latter refused to 
register them; the maUres des requites were enjoined to punish 
severely any infraction or failure to observe the ordinances. The 
powers of the governors in the provinces were much reduced; they 
were forbidden to exercise the right of pardon, to levy taxes, or 
to institute fairs and markets. The judicial power of the great 
villes was almost entirely suppressed. The communal judges 
were deprived of all civil jurisdiction and retained cognizance only 
of petty offenses; at the same time, the attempt was made to 
restrain seigneurial jurisdiction. The right of written proof was 
recognized in cases involving 100 livres or more.^ No less than 
1,500 superfluous offices, treasurerships, secretaryships, etc., were 
abolished. In the matter of religion some of the articles were a 
confirmation of the edict of 1563. Another article abolished 
entirely all confraternities, and prohibited the formation of all 
leagues. 3 

The financial administration came in for a most searching 
investigation. The flaunting arrogance of some of the King's 
treasurers is remarkable. Numbers of them had had houses, and 
even chateaux which rivaled the King's own in elegance, the means 
to purchase and furnish which they had secured by plundering 
the people and robbing the government. One treasurer — among 

1 C. S. p. For., anno 1566, Introd. The text of the ordonnance is in Isambert, 
XIV, 189; De Thou, Book XXXIX, 178-84, has much upon it. It is he who 
records the speeches of the King and the chancellor. It is interesting to observe 
that ver)' similar conditions prevailed in Germany at this time. See the account 
of the Diet of Spires (1570) in Janssen, History of the German People, VIII, 75 fit. 

2 Cf. Cheruel, Histoire de I' administration monarchique de la France, I, 196— 
203; Glasson, Histoire du droit et des institutions de la France, VIII, 170 flF. 

3 The clergy of Guyenne were so incensed at this prohibition that they threat- 
ened to leave the country {Archives de la Gironde, XIII, 183). 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 293 

four who were hanged at Montfaucon— was found to owe the 
crown over three milhon Hvres/ 

The young duke of Guise, who had refused to be a party to 
the farcical reconcihation between his house and the Chatillons 
soon found means to leave the court. In May the duke of Nemours 
and the duchess of Guise were married at St. Maur-des-Fosses. 
It was a match which sowed dragon's teeth once more. For 
Nemours forsook his wife, who was a Rohan, having induced the 
Pope to nullify the marriage. The Huguenots murmured indig- 
nantly against the insult done the Rohan clan whose powerful 
family influence was now joined with the Chatillons and Mont- 
morency s.^ 

Catherine de Medici was not the ruler to govern France with 
a firm yet facile hand under the circumstances that existed in 1566. 
Irrespective of foreign influences, which we shall presently come 
to, the economic distress^ of the country, the rivalry of the great 
houses, and the religious acrimony prevailing made a combination 
of forces that needed another sort of ruler to reconcile them — a 
ruler such as Henry of Navarre was to be. The queen mother, 
while a woman of force, was so deficient in sincerity that no one 
could have confidence in her; so jealous of power that she would 
brook no other control of the King, whose sovereignty she con- 
founded with her maternal oversight of him, making no distinction 

1 See the case of the magnificence of the house of a Parisian shoemaker, who 
had purchased the estate of a king's treasurer and enormously enriched himself 
with gold and silver. Under a pretext the queen mother secured entrance to the 
house. Claude Haton, I, 412, gives a detailed description of its magnificence. 

According to an estimate of January 15, 1572, the income from the "Parties 
Casuelles," that is to say, from offices vacated by the death of particular possessors 
thereof, and from the "Paulette," was two million francs and yet the corruption 
in the administration was so great that the King received but a quarter of this 
amount (Cheruel, I, 208). 

2 De Thou, V, Book XXXVII, 185; D'Aubigne, II, 224; C. S. P. For., Nos. 
343, 344, 347, 387, April 28; Mav 3-4, 16, 1566; Forneron, Hist, des dues de Guise, 

n, 59- 

3 "On ne salt encore quant on delogera d'icy, combien que les laboureurs des 
champs ayent ja faict presenter deux requestes au Roy pour se retirer et sa suite 
a Paris jusques a ce que la recolte soit faict." — Tronchon to M. de Gordes, July 4, 
1567; quoted by the due d'Aumale, Histoire des princes de Conde, I, Appendix XVI. 



294 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

between Charles IX the ruler and Charles IX the son. Catherine 
time and again marred or ruined the progress she had made with 
the aid of one party's support by her own envious fear of that 
party's predominance. Her ''bridge policy,"' instead of uniting 
France, kept it divided. To maintain the balance of power — an 
immemorial Italian policy — her Italian nature resorted to duphcity 
and deception continually. Accordingly, suspicion prevailed at 
court and suspicion prevailed in the provinces, the more so in the 
latter because of the Huguenots' uncertainty about what was done 
at Bayonne, and doubt as to Philip II's course. Men were doubt- 
ful of their neighbors; towns were fearful of other nearby towns. 
"All the way of my coming hither, " reported Sir Thomas Hoby, 
the new English ambassador to France, "I found the strong towns 
marvelously jealous of strangers, insomuch that only by the sound 
of a bell they discovered a number of horsemen or footmen before 
they come; but also, after they are entered they have an eye to 
them."^ 

When the court finally moved to Paris, the great nobles came 
thither with such numerous trains^ that the queen sent four com- 
panies of the King's guard ahead of his coming, and ordered the 
marshal Montmorency to require the retirement from the city of 
all those who were not of the ordinary household of each noble- 
man and gentleman. In vain the marshal, anxious to protect his 
party against the Guisards, resisted the order and complained 
that the queen was interfering with his authority. The King 
ordered Lansac and De la Garde to accomplish what Montmorency 
was unwilling to do. 

If choice must be made as to who were the worst offenders in 
this respect, the greater blame lies with the Protestants. It was 
not only impolitic, it was insolent on their part to permit Mont- 
gomery to swagger around Paris as he did, "booted and spurred 

1 "Politique de bascule," R. Q. H., XXVII, 374. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 275, April 12, 1566. 

3 It was estimated that, beside footmen, captains, men-at-arms, there were 
20,000 horsemen attached to the various factions (C. S. P. For., No. 470, May- 
June, 1566). 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 295 

with all his men,"' Apparently the queen had not the daring 
to compel his withdrawal, as she did that of the Guises' recruiting 
sergeant, Roggendorf.^ Her pohcy for the time being was to 
favor the Chatillon-Montmorency faction.^ Backed by the joint 
support of the admiral and the constable, the queen accordingly 
undertook to bring certain unsettled or indefinite matters of 
religion and the church to a conclusion. On May 31, 1566, 
Charles IX sent a series of articles to the cardinal Bourbon for 
consideration by the clergy of Paris, then sitting at St, Germain des 
Pr^s, Two of these had to do with the baptism of infants where 
one of the parents was a Catholic, and the maintenance of Prot- 
estants schools. Three concerned church temporalities, namely, 
the redemption of the fourth part of the temporals of the church, 
given to the King during the late civil war; the subsidy which was 
to expire in eighteen months; and the preparation of an edict 
defining the privileges and jurisdiction of the church. The residue 
of the articles dealt with infractions of the Edict of Amboise, such 
as restraint of preaching according to the edict, and the molesta- 
tion of former Protestants who had returned to the church of Rome 
by the Huguenots, By an awkward coincidence, the sending of 
these articles exactly coincided with the arrival of the papal legate 
in Paris, who came to request the promulgation of the decrees of 
Trent in conformity with the agreement made with the cardinal 
de Santa Croce at Bayonne.'* 

Catherine de Medici's policy at this time was that of the political 
Huguenots, She hoped that the question of religion would settle 
itself with time, and to divert attention from that issue, and also 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 667, August 21, 1566. 

2 Ihid., No. 715, September 14, 1566. 

3 Hugh Fitzwilliam to Cecil: "The constable is of great authority with the 
king and the queen mother; and being mortal enemy to the house of Guise is with 
his nephews and the Protestants for his life." — C. S. P. For., No. 741, October 
3. 1566. 

4 Neg. Tosc, III, 515. "A man might easily perceive by the sour countenance 
the queen made that she liked not all that he had said. After he had saluted 
divers persons the king made him somewhat too short an answer for so long a 
demand." — C. S. P. For., No. 444, June i, 1566. 



296 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

because there was great need of it, she energetically continued 
the administrative and economic reforms begun at Moulins. 
L'Hopital began so searching an investigation of the conduct of 
the King's treasurers that some of them were hanged and others 
banished. The constable was of service here, although his notori- 
ous avarice tarnished the honesty of his work," Yet there was 
peril even in a policy so just and so much needed by France. 
Sooner or later such a course would unearth the dishonesty of 
bigger thieves than the small collectors of the revenue who, in 
many cases undoubtedly suffered for the peculation of their 
superiors. The administration was full of "grafters" such as 
St. Andre had been, who would not scruple to conceal their thievery 
behind the smoke of another civil war. The queen mother knew 
this only too w^ell from former experience, not being unaware of 
the fact that one of the causes of "the late unpleasantness" was 
the demand of the estates that the Guises should make an ac- 
counting and be forced to disgorge their ill-gotten gains. The 
government resorted to various devices to raise money and 
an imposition was laid upon inn-keepers. The most singular 
expedient, though, was the offer of a Genoese syndicate to pay 
the King a lump sum for the privilege of taxing dowry gifts and 
for a license to endure eight years to levy a crown on every first- 
born infant, and after, for every boy born into a family five sous, 
and for every girl babe, three sous.^ This preposterous measure 
actually passed the council, and was only prevented from becom- 
ing law by the good sense of the Parlement.^ 

But the events happening in the Netherlands were of greater 
importance to France at this time than anything within her borders. 
From the beginning of the insurrection there the Huguenots had 
recognized the important bearing of that struggle upon their own 
movement, and as the shadow of Philip II fell in greater length 

I "The king has made peace with his treasurers for a certain sum by the 
constable's means, whereof something cleaves to his fingers." — C- S. P. For., No. 
733> §2, September 28, 1566. 

» According to the estimate of this syndicate France had a population of from 
fifteen to sixteen millions (Rel. ven., Ill, 149). 

3 C. 5. P. For., Nos. 1,111-15, April 18-19, 1567. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 297 

each year across France, the interest of the French Protestants 
in the rebelhon of the Low Countries increased.' As Huguenot 
preachers in Flanders sowed the double seed of Calvinism and 
revolt, so Protestant preachers exiled from the Low Countries 
sought refuge in France.^ This intercourse became a formidable 
historical issue by 1566. The issue was understood from the 
beginning by all parties concerned, and Philip II and his ministers 
were determined to profit by the lesson of France and to prevent 
similar trouble by crushing all opposition in the bud. The Turk- 
ish attack upon Malta^ had been very favorable to the Protestant 
cause, and the raising of the siege in September, 1565, probably 
influenced the King of Spain in his resolution to extirpate heresy 
in the Low Countries.'* The Flemish government suspected 
William of Orange who by July w^as openly allied with the Gueux^ 
and his brother, Louis of Nassau, of direct intercourse with Conde 

1 Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, IX, 594, 595; Poulet, I, Introd., 
1-lii, n. 2; Gachard, Don Carlos et Philippe II, I, 303; C. S. P. For., No. 641, 
August 13, 1566. Coussemaker, Les troubles religieux du XV I ^ siecle dans la 
Flandre maritime 1^60-70; Van Velthoven, Documents pour servir a I'hlst. des 
troubles religieux du XV le siecle dans le Brabant; Verly, La furie espagnole, 1565-95; 
Kervyn de Lettenhove, Les Huguenots et les Gueux: Etude hist, sur vingt-cinq 
annels du XVI^ siecle (1560-1585), Bruges, 1883-85, 6 vols.; Poulet, Correspon- 
dance du cardinal de Granvelle, I, Introd., Ivii-lxxvi; II, Introd., iv-vii; De Thou, 
V, 204-37; D'Aubigne, Book IV, chap. xxi. 

2 The most notable of these was Francis Junius, who was driven out of Antwerp. 
The Spanish ambassador demanded his arrest but the prevot de I'hotel refused, 
alleging with right that Junius was the ambassador of the count palatine and 
entitled to immunity {Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., cviii). 

3 On this famous siege of Malta see D'Aubigne, Book IV, chap, xix; "De Thou, 
Book XXXVIII. It was begun on May 17, 1565. 

Mingled with this fear was apprehension lest even the Turk might become 
an ally of the Flemings and the Protestant French (Poulet, I, 357, Morillon to 
Granvelle). That it was not an utterly fantastic notion of him alone, see the letter 
of Margaret of Parma to Philip II, in Corresp. de Philippe II, I, No. 411, and 
Gachard, Corresp. de Guillaume le Taciturne, VI, 408. 

4 Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, I, 259-89; Poulet, I, 207; Gachard, 
La Bibliotheque Nationale a Paris, I, 88. "Avec la liberte des consciences, que 
aulcungs pretendent, nous ne nous trouverions pas mal si, suyvant I'exemple des 
Francois, nous tumbions aux mesmes inconvenientz." — Letter of Granvella, 
April 9, 1566, in Poulet, I, 209. 

5 Sir Francis Berty to Cecil: "The Prince of Orange since Wednesday shows 
himself openly to take the Gueux part, and divers of his men wear their badge. 
This town is marvellously desolated; great riches are conveyed out, chiefly by 
strangers." — C. S. P. For., No. 582, July 20, 1566, from Antwerp. 



298 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

and Coligny,^ and sent Montigny — the faithless member of the 
patriotic quartette composed of Orange, Egmont, Hoorne, and 
himself — to Paris in the spring to pick up information.^ The 
fear lest Montgomery might come to Flanders, which Granvella 
had once laughed at, by the summer of 1566 had some basis of 
reality, although the braggadocio character of this adventurer 
discounted alarm. ^ 

Knowledge of the solidarity existing between his revolted sub- 
jects in Flanders and the Huguenots'^ which Montluc had 
warned Philip of even two years before,^ coupled with infor- 
mation concerning the dealings of Louis of Nassau with Protes- 

1 Poulet, I, 307. 

2 We know of Montigny's treason from a dispatch of Granvella to Philip II, 
July 18, 1565, in which the cardinal tells the King that Montigny is still success- 
fully pretending to be a Calvinist and is in correspondence with the Chatillons and 
Montmorency. He had already been at least nine months in the pay of Spain. 
He got 20 ecus per diem for one job (Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, IX, 
404, 595). Montigny came to Paris ostensibly to attend the wedding of the duke 
of Nemours' son to the admiral's niece at Easter time. We get a line on Philip II's 
methods at this point, for the Guises themselves were having secret and treasonable 
dealings with Spain, yet did not know of Montigny's relation to Philip II and 
treated him with scorn and contempt {ibid; Poulet, I, 329; cf. Finot, L'espionnage 
militaire dans les Pays-Bas entre la France et I'Espagne aux XV I ^ et XVI I^ siecles). 

3 Poulet, I, 304; Edward Cook to Cecil: "Montgomery has told him that 
the French Protestants are resolved to succour those of Flanders." — C. S. P. For., 
No. 661, August 18, 1566. This letter is analyzed in the Bull, de la comm. roy. 
d'histoire, 36 ser., I, 129. Granvella's confidant in Brussels, the prevost Moril- 
lon, wrote with truth on July 7: "Je croy que si avons mal cest annee ce ne sera 
du costel de France." — Poulet, I, 350. Cf. Reiffenberg, Carres p. de Marguerite 
de Parme, 88; Gachard, Corresp. de Philippe II, I, 429, 431, 436; at p. 473 is a 
letter dated October 15 in Italian from the duchess of Parma to Philip expressing 
fear of Huguenot projects. 

4 Louis of Nassau without doubt was in close connection with the leading 
French Protestants. See Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, I, 229; II, 196, 
403. It was extremely difficult to repress the ardor of the Protestants at Valen- 
ciennes, owing to its nearness of the French border and the number of Calvinist 
preachers whom the Huguenots sent into the country in June, 1566 (ibid., II, 135). 
For the influx of Calvinist preachers into the country as early as 1561 see Languet, 
Epist. seer., II, 155. The prince of Conde was reputed to have sold a tapestry 
for 9,000 florins, which he gave to the cause there (Poulet, I, 439). 

s Montluc to Bardaxi, October 27, 1564: Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, 
IV, 368. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 299 

tant Germany^ and France, stirred the Spanish King's habitual 
indecision into action. He sounded Charles IX as to the possi- 
biHty of sending Spanish troops directly across France to the Low 
Countries and asked him to restrain his subjects from coming 
thither with arms,'' crowds of whom went to Flanders disguised 
as merchants. 3 Simultaneously Margaret of Parma begged the 
Emperor to take the same course.^ But the government of France 
could not have honored Philip II's request, even if it had been so 
minded, without risking an immediate rising of the Huguenots. 
As a matter of fact, it had no desire to do so. The resentment 
felt by France toward Spain on account of past scores at Trent, 
Rome, and in Switzerland, was now all eclipsed in her rancor 
because of the massacre by the Spaniards of her ill-fated colony 
in Florida in September, 1565.5 

1 Poulet, I, 64; Reiffenberg, 91; Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, 
II, 175, 178. 

2 Corresp. de Philippe II, I, 433. 

3 The government of Charles IX even winked at the secret levies made by 
the prince of Conde for the benefit of Louis of Nassau, from behind the mask of an 
official repudiation of the complicity of any French in Flanders, denying that the 
prince of Conde was ever in Antwerp in disguise (Poulet, I, 521, 3; Gachard, 
La Bibliotheque Nationale a Paris, II, 206. The last assertion, of course, was true. 
On July 24 a royal proclamation was issued at Alva's instance, forbidding French 
subjects to go into the Low Countries "pour negotiation ou autrement." — Poulet, 
I, 364; Gachard, op. cit., II, 27. 

4 "Hinc illae lachrymae et ille metus," wrote the provost to Granvella (Poulet, 
I, 405). It was the wish of the Emperor that the King of Spain would go in person 
and without an army to the Low Countries in order to pacify it by kindness and not 
by force {Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, II, 505; Raumer, I, 173, Decem- 
ber, 1566). But Philip II could not make up his mind to come in person to the 
Netherlands, although advised to do so by all. For years he continued to entertain 
the thought and continually put it off. See a letter of the Duchess of Parma to 
Duke Henry of Brunswick upon the coming of the duke of Alva, January 1567, 
in Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 21 ff. 

s On April 3, 1565, St Sulpice sent word to Charles IX that Philip II had sent 
Menendez to Florida "avec une bonne flotte et 600 hommes pour combattre les 
Frangais et les passer au fil de I'epee." — L'Amhassade de St. Sulpice, 364. When 
Fourquevaux succeeded him the French government had not yet learned of the 
massacre. St. Sulpice's fragmentary information is to be found at pp. 400, 401, 404, 
414. The abortive efforts of France to secure redress are spread at length in 
Corresp. de Catherine de Medicis, 11, 209, 330, 337, 338, 341, 342, 360; and in Four- 
quevaux, I, Nos. 4-7, 9, 15, 21, 28, 43, 47, 55, 66. The editor's account in the 



300 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Alexander VI 's bull had divided the western hemisphere between 
the Spanish and the Portuguese. Florida belonged to Spain. France 
had built Fort Caroline on Spanish territory. As peace existed in 
1565, France argued that the massacre by Menendez was a vio- 
lation of international law. To this Spain replied that Florida 
belonged to her by discovery and as all treaties between Spain 
and France were silent as to any change of ownership, there really 
had been no such change in law. Consequently the French settlers 
were intruders and heretics to boot. The answer was crushing, 
Fourquevaux was heavily handicapped, for he could not openly 
espouse the cause of Frenchmen who were heretics. Before 
news of the massacre reached France, Philip II, knowing the 
facts, inquired if the French expedition had been commanded or 
sanctioned by the French King. The only answer possible was a 
negative. An affirmative answer would have been tantamount 
to a declaration of war, "Then the incident is closed," was the 
Spanish reply. This was followed by a demand that Coligny, 
under whose sanction the expedition had sailed, should be punished. 

France was likewise at odds with the Emperor. The reason 
for this is to be found in the strong attitude the empire had lately 
taken on the question of Metz.' Understanding of this question 
entails a glance backward. In 1564 the baron Bolwiller, a native 

Introd., xv-xxi is admirable. In the Correspondencia espanola, II, 126-28, is to 
be found Philip II's letter to Chantonnay, February 28, 1566, in reply to the ambas- 
sador's letter of advice about Coligny's enterprise. The blood of French colonists 
who had been massacred in Florida cried out for vengeance, and from the hour of 
its know^ledge the subject of reprisal was a matter of common talk in the Norman 
ports (C. 5. P. Dom., Add., XIII, 227). On September 24, 1566, Sir Amyas Paulet, 
the English ambassador informed his government that he had information that a 
squadron was about to sail for this purpose, although it was "late for so long a 
voyage" {ibid., 31). On the whole history of this ill-fated colony see Gaillard, 
"La reprise de la Floride faite par le capit. Gourgues (1568)," Notices et extr. 
des manuscr. de la Biblioth. Nat., IV, and VII (1799); Gourgues, La reprise de la 
Floride, publiee avec les variantes, sur les MSS de la Bibl. Nat. par Ph. Tamizey 
de Larroque, 1867; Gafferel, Histoire de la Floride jrangaise, 1875; Parkman, 
The French in North America. The newest literature upon the subject is Wood- 
bury Lowery, "Jean Ribaut and Queen Elizabeth," American Historical Review, 
April, 1904, and the same author's The Spanish Settlements within the Present 
Limits oj the United States: Florida, 1^62-^4 (New York, 1905). 
I De Thou, V, 37-40. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 301 

of upper Alsace, but at that time bailiff of the Emperor in the grand 
bailiwick of Haguenau, revived the plan he had conceived in 1558, 
of recovering Metz by a surprise. ^ Bolwiller represented that no 
time was to be lost if France was to be prevented from fixing her 
hold upon the Three Bishoprics forever. Philip II favored the 
enterprise and offered 20,000 sous cash, and the assignment of 
8,000 ecus annual revenue of the territory, " pour celluy ou ceulx 
qui'lz luy rendroyent la ville du diet Metz."^ For with Metz in 
the hands of the Hapsburgs once more, the chain of provinces 
connecting the Netherlands with Spain through mid- Europe would 
have been practically complete, lying as Metz, Toul, and Verdun 
did, between Franche-Comte and Luxembourg.^ This was at 
the time when Conde was recreant to his people and was dallying 
with the widow of the marshal St. Andre, and the idea was con- 
ceived and abandoned of buying the prince over and bribing him 
to betray Metz to Spain.'* Spain, however, in order to avoid a 
rupture with France wished to conceal her own participation in 
the plot to recover Metz, and urged the Emperor Maximilian to 
undertake the venture.^ The plot was to tempt Metz to revolt 

1 Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 381, note. In 1558 Bolwiller 
made an inroad into France (Bulletin des comites historiques, 1850, p. 774; a summary 
of a letter concerning this episode to be found in the archives of Basel). On 
Bolwiller see Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, IX, 36, note. The new plan 
was occasioned by the issue of letters-patent of Charles IX on October 9, 1564, for- 
bidding sale or alienation of any regalian rights of the Three Bishoprics without his 
consent (text in Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 394). 

2 Bolwiller to Granvella, October 16, 1564, on the written authority of Philip 
II (ibid., VIII, 429). 

3 "Je tiens que les Franjois, par voye de faict, y (Toul) mectront la main, 
comme ilz ont ja commence, et le mesmes a Metz et Verdung." — Papiers d'etat 
du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 465; Granvella to the Emperor, April 12, 1564. 

4 Ibid., VIII, 504-6. 

5 Ibid., IX, 44. Granvella to Perez, February 26, 1565; p. iii, Philip II to 
Chantonnay, then stationed at Vienna, April 2, 1565. Bolwiller intrusted the 
action to Egelolf, seigneur de Ribeauspierre (the German form is Rapolstein), 
a noble of Upper Alsace. His mother was a Fiirstenburg. (See ibid., IX, 24, 
note.) Strange vicissitude, that a descendant of that house in the next century 
should have been Louis XIV's right-hand agent in his seizures on the Rhine through 
the Chambers of Reunion, playing an identically opposite part from that of his 
ancestors. 



302 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

against France by offering to convert it into a free imperial city, 
it being expected that the Lutherans in the city would support the 
movement.' The alertness of the French government, however, 
foiled the project's being undertaken in April. In August Bol- 
willer renewed his plan, alleging to Chantonnay that the people 
of Metz were ready to provide 20,000 ecus, and that there were 
arms in plenty stored in secret. He urged prompt action now for the 
French government had begun the erection of a citadel in the city.^ 

By this time Philip II was so anxious to see France despoiled 
of Metz and so impatient at Maximilian's delay, that it was even 
considered advisable by some to take advantage of the check given 
the Turks at Malta and have the Emperor make peace with them 
in order to have his hands free in the Three Bishoprics.^ As for 
himself, Philip II dared not make an overt move against France, 
lest in the event of war with Spain, Charles IX appeal to the 
Huguenots, with the result that Protestantism would profit by 
the diversion.'* 

But meanwhile things in Metz had got beyond control of either 

1 Papiers d'etat dii cardinal de Granvelle, IX, 71 — Bolwiller to the cardinal 
March 20, 1565. 

Metz was early famous for its interest in the Reformation. The laxness of the 
episcopal discipline in the first part of the sixteenth century contributed to the 
growth of this spirit, and finally led to a Catholic reaction. The city was more 
inclined, however, to Calvinism than to Lutheranism. Charles V prohibited the 
exercise of the Lutheran faith, but nevertheless, the Protestants of Metz made an 
alliance with the Smalkald League. Under the French domination the city passed 
definitely from Lutheranism to Calvinism. The French governor, Vieilleville, 
was a moderate in policy and granted the Huguenots a church in the interior of the 
town. During the first civil war the Protestants in Metz remained tranquil, but 
soon afterward Farel visited the city for the third time, and thereafter the city's 
religious activity was considerable. The cardinal of Lorraine suppressed Protestant 
preaching in the diocese and closed the church. When Charles IX visited Metz 
in 1564 the edifice was destroyed and Protestant worship was forbidden. After the 
death of the Marshal Vieilleville, the count de Retz was made governor. One of 
the motives of the support of the Huguenot cause by John Casimir, the prince 
palatine, was a promise made by the Huguenots that he would be given the gover- 
norship of Metz. On the subject as a whole see Thirion, Etude sur I'histoire dii- 
protestantisme a Metz et dans le pays Messin, Nancy, 1885; Le Coullon, Journal 
{1537-8^) d'apres le manuscrit original, public pour la premiere fois et annote par 
E. de Bouteiller, Paris, Dumoulin, 1881. 

2 Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, IX, 462, 463. 

3 Granvella to Perez, October 15, 1565; ihid., IX, 594, 595. 

4 See Philip II's letter to Chantonnay, October 22, 1565; ihid., IX 609 ff. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 303 

Spain or the empire. The Calvinists in both France and the 
Netherlands had been quick to see the advantage afforded, for 
the former by gaining possession of the territory could connect 
France and the Palatinate, thus aiding themselves and their core- 
ligionists at one and the same time, since by so doing the land 
route of Spain through Central Europe, via Milan, Besanfon, and 
Luxembourg, would be cut in half. Matters came to a head in 
May and June, 1565, in what is known as the "Cardinal's War." 
On May 5 the Emperor Maximilian had issued a decree affirming 
his suzerainty over Metz, Toul, and Verdun. The cardinal of 
Lorraine at once recognized the validity of this decree, which was 
equivalent to treason to France. Thereupon, in the name of 
Charles IX Salzedo an ex-Spaniard^ and leader of the French 
party in Metz assumed the title of governor of Metz and appealed 
to the French King for support against the cardinal. The 
issue was really one between France and Spain. The Guises 
naturally supported the cardinal. The "war" which followed 
was not formidable, although the issue as stake was of great impor- 
tance. But the cardinal soon discovered that discretion was the 
better part of valor and yielded to the King, more especially as 
neither Philip II nor Maximilian raised a hand for fear of betray- 
ing themselves, for the cardinal feared that if he resisted longer 
Charles IX would refuse to pardon his treasonable conduct. He 
was not unaware of the fact — he did not even deny it — that it was 
known that he had been in treasonable communication with Bol- 
willer and the archbishop of Treves.^ 

If Charles IX and the queen mother had known the full extent 
of the cardinal of Lorraine's treasonable conduct at this time they 

1 He had served in Italy in 1555 and became the cardinal's baiH£f and revenue- 
collector in the bishopric of Metz after the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis {Com- 
mentaire et lettres de Montluc, I, 228). 

2 For an account of the "Cardinal's War" see De Thou, V, Book XXXVII, 
37-40. There is another account in the Mem. de Conde, V, 27, supposed to have 
been written by Salzedo himself. In F. Fr. 3, 197, folio 92, there is an unpublished 
letter of Salzedo's (see Appendix IX), and another of the duke of Aumale upon 
this incident. Chantonnay comforted Philip for the disappointment over Metz by 
telling him, that while the restoration of the Three Bishoprics was indeed important, 
because of their bearing upon the situation in Flanders, the trouble had averted a 



304 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

might not have been so lenient toward him. For he was guilty 
not only of treasonable intercourse with the empire, but directly 
with Spain also. The one supremely important result of this 
petty war over Metz is that at this time the cardinal — and with 
him the whole Guise house — began those secret negotiations with 
Phihp of Spain which culminated in the establishment of the Holy 
League. Shortly after the end of his ignominious war around 
Metz, burning with anger and shame, the cardinal sent a secret 
agent to Franche Comte, who found Granvella at Beaudencourt 
in July, 1565, to whom he recited the cardinal's grievances, saying 
that owing to the death of his brother the duke of Guise and the 
insolence of the marshal Montmorency, he had no hope in the 
justice of Charles IX. The agent then went on to point out the 
great danger threatening Catholic Europe by reason of what had 
recently happened at Metz, and, speaking for the cardinal of Lor- 
raine, expressed the wish that Phihp II would enter into a league 
with the house of Guise, the duke of Montpensier — Alva's convert 
at Bayonne — and certain others for the protection of the Catholic 
faith in France and the overthrow of the Chatillons, the prince of 
Conde, "Madame de Vendome," and other Huguenots. This 
formidable overture was made under the seal of secrecy. The 
cautious Granvella listened but refrained from committing his 
master to the proposition.' Again, Phihp II hesitated to imphcate 
himself so directly in French affairs, as the cardinal of Lorraine 
urged, just as he had hesitated the year before with Montluc, and 

marriage alliance between France and Austria which would have been more 
calamitous (Letter to Philip II, October 30, 1565, in Papiers d'etat du cardinal 
de Granvelle, IX, 625). 

Two years later we find the tricky cardinal of Lorraine still protesting his 
innocence to Catherine and praying her not to be suspicious of him (Letter of 
December 6, 1567, Fillon Collection, No. 316). 

I Forneron, I, 346, on the basis of Alva's letter to Philip on May 19, 1566, and 
the cardinal's own letter, written at the same time (both preserved in K. 1,505, 
No. 99, and K. 1,509), assumes that the secret intercourse between Philip II and 
the Guises began in the year 1566 and ascribes the immediate occasion of it to the 
troubles in the Low Countries. He missed the inception of it by a year. Gran- 
vella's letter conclusively shows that it began in July, 1565. Every word of this 
letter is of weight. It is to be found in Papiers d'etat dii cardinal de Granvelle, IX, 
399-402. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 305 

while he waited events in the Low Countries went from bad to 
worse. 

In August, 1566, a furious outburst of iconoclasm swept through 
the churches of Flanders, 

Commencing at St. Omer, the contagion rapidly spread, and in a fortnight 
400 churches were sacked in Flanders alone, while in Antwerp the cathedral 
was stripped of all its treasures. Images, relics, shrines, paintings, manu- 
scripts, and books shared a common fate.^ 

The event stirred Phihp to action. He determined to send 
the duke of Alva to Flanders to repress things with an iron hand.^ 

On November 18, 1566, the duke of Alva formally requested 
the French ambassador at Madrid to secure Charles IX' s permis- 
sion for a Spanish army to cross France. 

The remedy has become little by little so difficult [said the duke] that deeds 
not words and remonstrances, are now necessary. Having exhausted all good 
and gracious means to reduce things in the Low Countries, the King is con- 
strained, to his great regret, to have recourse to force. Public assemblies, 
preaching, the bearing of arms, and violence prevail in the land and the King's 
ministers amount to nothing. 

The duke then outhned the plan. Ten thousand new Spanish 
recruits under three ensigns were to be sent to Luxembourg, Naples, 
Sardinia, and Sicily to take the places of as many veteran troops 
there, for the King was unwilling to use Italian infantry. A thou- 
sand heavy-armed footmen and three or four hundred mounted 
arquebusiers, all Spanish, were to be drawn from Milan, the most 
loyal of Spain's Italian dependencies. An indefinite number of 
reiters and other mercenaries could be had for the asking. These 

1 Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 328. For interesting details 
by an eye-witness, see Bourgon, Lije and Times oj Sir Thomas Gresham, II, 121 ff. 

2 Poulet, I, 509; Gachard, Don Carlos et Philippe II, 354; La Bibliotheque 
Nationale a Paris, II, 213. The disastrous news reached the King on September 
5. For ten days he was ill with a high fever in consequence. Fourquevaux, 
writing from Segovia on September 11, to Charles IX, gives some details of Philip's 
illness and how he was treated by the physicians and then adds: "Les Espagnols 
sont bien marriez d'entendre que les Lutheriens dud. pais (Flanders) ont commence 
s'empoigner aux eglises et reliques, et a fere marier les prebtres et nonnains, avec 
infiniz autres maulx qu'ilz font, qui est le semblable commencement des doleurs 
qui advindrent en votre Royaume du temps des troubles." — Depeches de M. Four- 
quevaux, I, 124, 125, 



o 



06 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



troops would proceed to the Netherlands through Savoy by way of 
Val d'Aoste or Mt. Cenis, Montmelian, Chambery, and La Bresse, 
into Franche Comte and Lorraine, unless — and this was the crux 
of Alva's interview with Fourquevaux — the winter season made 
it impossible to traverse the mountain passes, in which case His 
Catholic Majesty desired leave of France to take them by sea to 
Marseilles or Toulon and thence to march them northward up 
the Rhone to La Bresse and so reach Franche Comte. 

No one knew better than Alva the formidable nature of this 
proposition to France and he used all his artifice to conceal its 
danger, dwelhng on the mutual connection between the Huguenot 
and the Flemish movement and the benefit that France would 
derive from the crushing of the rebellion in the Low Countries. 
Fourquevaux in reply declared that the Huguenots would fly to arms 
again, if a Spanish army should enter France, to which the duke 
rejoined that the presence of a Spanish army would so overawe 
them that they would not dare to do so. The ambassador then 
inquired whether the Emperor could support Philip, seeing that 
he was engaged in a war with the Turks ^ and was incapable of 
raising funds in his behalf. Alva told him that the German princes 
would perceive that the Flemings were merely rebels and that 
" no prince or soldier in Germany, even were he a Lutheran, w^ould 
refuse to take the pay of Spain." ^ But Fourquevaux refused to 
be convinced by Alva's smooth words. He had information that 
Spain was borrowing ships from Malta, Genoa, and the papacy 
and Savoy and warned Charles IX to strengthen the garrisons in 
Languedoc and Provence. ^ 

1 The Austrian lands were invaded by the Turks in the autumn of 1566 {Nego- 
ciations dans le Levant, II, 721; Languet, Epist. seer., I, 15). 

2 It was a pose of Philip's that the expedition was purely political; cf . Gachard, 
Les hibliotheques de Madrid et de I'Escurial, 94 ff., based on the correspondence 
of the archbishop of Rossano. 

3 Dispatch to Charles IX, December 9, 1566 (Fourquevaux, I, 147-52). He 
waited in great anxiety for instructions from Paris, daily growing more suspicious 
because the Spanish King said not a word to him on the subject, although he 
sent for him in audience on January 14, 1567 (ibid., 167-72; dispatches of 
Jan. 5 and 18, 1567). The tremendous financial operations of the Spanish govern- 
ment (consult Gachard, Don Carlos et Philippe II, II, 369, 370) filled him with 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 307 

This information threw the court of France into great excite- 
ment. Catherine de Medici declared that the heretics would take 
up^ arms immediately, under such circumstances.^ The King 
wrote to Fourquevaux on December 24 not to spare any efforts to 
penetrate the designs of Spain. ^ Sixteen thousand troops were 
sent into the Lyonnais at once.^ The marshal Vieilleville returned 
to Metz.'* The government began the erection of a great citadel 
in Verdun and to fortify the frontier against Luxembourg. ^ D'An- 
delot was sent to Switzerland to make new enrolments.^ An 
agent was sent into Normandy with instructions to pass along the 
coast and take the names of master-mariners and sailors.'^ The 
queen of Navarre began to mobilize forces in Bearn.^ All this 
time the duke of Alva kept endeavoring to quiet French alarm by 
reiterating that he would use all means in his power to avoid 
troubling France and that the army destined for Flanders, now 
increased by 1,500 light horse composed of Spaniards, Italians, 
and Albanians, would go by the valley of the Rhone only as a last 
recourse.^ 

Finally, in the middle of February, the duke of Alva's prepara- 
tions were made. Don Juan de Acuna, who had been sent to 

alarm, and he made an unsuccessful effort to bribe the secretary of one of Philip 
II's ministers. He gathered that the Spanish forces would likely sail for Barcelona 
and disembark at Nice or Genoa (ibid., 176, 177, February 13, 1567). 

1 Forneron, I, 347, on authority of Alva's dispatch in K. 1,507, No. 2; cf. 
Neg. Tosc, III, 527. 

2 Gachard, La Bihliotheque Nationale a Paris, II, 228. The dispatch was 
delayed on account of the illness of the courier and the heavy snows he encountered 
in the Pyrenees, and did not reach the ambassador until January 15, 1567 (Four- 
quevaux, I, 168). The correspondence of Bernardo d'Aspremont, viscount of 
Orthez, governor of Bayonne — unfortunately much scattered in the volumes of the 
Bibliotheque Nationale — shows the standing danger the southern provinces of 
France were in from Spanish invasion {Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 400, 
note). 

3 Poulet, II, 183. 4 D'Aubigne, II, 229, note. s Poulet, II, 495. 

6 D'Aubigne, II, 228; Zurlauben, Hist, milit. des Suisses, IV, 335. 

7 We learn this from a letter of George Paulet. See Appendix X. 

8 Poulet, II, 183; Depeches de M. Fourquevaux, I, 173. 

9 Depeches de M. Fourquevaux, I, 174, February 4, 1567. Philip II took these 
military preparations of" the French with remarkable equanimity — even Charles 



3o8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Savoy to make arrangements with the duke for the transit of the 
Spanish army, returned, after having made a satisfactory settle- 
ment. The army was to go through Savoy, via the Mt. Cenis 
and Chambery, cross the Rhone at Yenne, and so proceed to Besan- 
fon in Franche Comte, where it was to be joined by German con- 
tingents. This averted the danger threatening Languedoc and 
Dauphine, but threw it upon French Burgundy and Champagne,^ 
It was a roundabout route for the Spanish troops in the Milanais, 
but it was impossible to send them directly through Switzerland 
by way of the Grisons, Constance, Basel, and Strasburg without 
inflaming these localities; above all, Geneva would thereby have 
been menaced, and any movement imperiling that city would have 
fired the entire Calvinist world. ^ 

In the face of common peril Bern, Freiburg, and Valais con- 
cluded a defensive league on February 20, while Basel and Zurich 
took up arms with French approval. Fear of a joint attack of 
Spain and Savoy upon Geneva prevailed throughout Switzerland, 
which was divided into two camps, the five cantons of the center 
favoring designs upon Geneva and the Vaud, Spain aimed 

IX's positive refusal to allow the Spanish army to traverse France (March 24, 
1567). He seemed to be sincerely anxious to avoid friction with France (see his 
letter to Granvella, February 17, 1567, in Poulet, II, 255, 256). The danger in the 
Low Countries was too great to allow any outside controversy. The clandestine 
operation of Protestant preachers in Spain itself and the smuggling of heretical 
books into the land, concealed in casks of wine, disquieted him more than France did 
at this season. (For information on this head see Poulet, II, 126, 142, 199; Neg. 
Tosc, III, 506; Weiss, Spanish Protestants in the Sixteenth Century.) 

1 Fourquevaux (February 15, 1567), I, 180, 181. Granvella apparently, 
immediately after learning of the image breaking, and anticipating that either the 
King himself or the duke of Alva, would have to go to Brussels, sent a remarkable 
memoir to Philip II, in which he discusses all the various routes by which he might 
go, and the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. The physical difficulties 
of governing the Low Countries from Madrid are very evident (see Poulet, I, 
469-80). 

2 The Pope's nuncio had pointed out to Philip II what a splendid achievement 
the overcoming of Geneva would be for Christendom. The scheme was an old 
one. See a letter of Pius IV to Francis II, June 14, 1560, in Raynaldus, XXXIV, 
64, col. 2. The King, after some weeks of consideration, declared that he could 
not think of it; that even the duke of Savoy was against the project. (See Gachard, 
Corresp. de Philippe II, II, 552, and his Les hibliotheques de Madrid et de I'Escurial, 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 309 

to profit by the impression produced by the passage of her 
troops close to the Swiss frontier to force certain miHtary 
advantages and dispossess France from the exceptional situation 
she had lately secured in the Alps. The western cantons 
were offered cheap salt from Franche Comte, and those of 
the center grain from the Milanais. The duke of Lorraine also 
offered salt at a low price from his duchy. As a result Bern found 
herself deserted by western Switzerland and apparently single- 
handed about to be called upon to protect Geneva from Spanish 
attack. Perhaps if Spain had been certain of the support of Savoy 
at this juncture, this might have happened, but the duke of Savoy 
was content to profit by the fear of the Bernois to compel them to 
restore the three bailiwicks which they had formerly agreed to 
do in the treaty of Lausanne, October 30, 1564, but had delayed 
to fulfil. Charles IX himself advised Bern to yield in this par- 
ticular and in August the settlement with the duke of Savoy was 
made.^ 

All that Philip now requested of France was leave for French 
subjects to provide the army with supplies in its course. Again 
Fourquevaux urged his sovereign to be cautious; the fact that 
France was just recovering from a year of famine and could ill 
spare sustenance for others was not so important as the necessity 
of avoiding every occasion of civil war.^ 

On May 10, 1567, the duke of Alva sailed from Cartagena and 
arrived at Genoa on May 27. St. Ambroise at the foot of the Alps 
was the point where his munitions and provisions were concentrated. 
Here on June 2 the duke had a grand review of his troops. There 

100.) On the political ambition of the duke of Savoy see Rel. ven., I, 453. He had 
made a treaty with Bern in 1565 (Collection Godefroy, XCIV, fol. 21). There are 
three excellent German monographs on Switzerland in the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries: Planta, Die Geschichte von Grauhunden in ihren Hauptzugen, 
Bern, 1892; idem, Chronih der Familie von Planta, Zurich, 1892; Salis-Soglio, 
Die Familie von Salis, Lincau-im-B., 1891. For a review of the last two see 
English Historical Review, VIII, 588. 

1 See Revue d'histoire diplomatique, XIV (1900), 45-47. 

2 "Mais le faisant, c'estoit remectre le feu et le glaive dans la France plus et 
plus cruel qui'lz n'y ont este." — Depeches de M. Fourquevaux (March 15, 1567), 
I, 189. 



3IO THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

were 19 ensigns (3,230 men), from Naples, under the command 
of Alonzo de Uloa; 10 ensigns from Sicily (1,620 men) under 
command of Julian Romero; 10 ensigns of Lombard troops (2,200 
men) under command of Don Sancho de Londono; 10 Sardinian 
ensigns with four companies of recruits in addition (1,728 men) 
under command of Don Gonzalo de Bracamonte, making a total 
of 49 ensigns of Spanish infantry (8,778 men). The duke's cavalry 
was composed of five companies of Spanish light horse and three 
Italian and two Albanian companies and two companies of Spanish 
arquebusiers on horseback, in all 1,200 horses.' On the march 
a company of 15 musketeers was placed between each ensign. 
This was the first instance in modern warfare when muskets were 
used in the field. Hitherto this weapon had been so enormously 
heavy that it was used in siege work only, balanced upon a triangle 
of wood or iron.^ 

1 1 have given the figures of Mendoza, which probably is the strength of the 
forces when they arrived. The official roster is in the Correspondencia, No. CXXII. 

2 "The front of every company by a new invention was flanked with fifteen 
supernumeraries, armed with musketoones, and rests wherein they laid the barrow 
that could not be managed by the hands. For before his time, such huge muskets 
as unmanageable were drawn upon carriages and only used at sieges, from whence 
being transmitted into the field, and those that carry them mixed with the lesser 
musketeers, they have been found extraordinarily serviceable in battle." — Stapyl- 
ton's transl. of Strada, Book VI, 31. 

Brantome's statement is more graphic: "11 fut luy le premier qui leur donna 
en main les gros mousquetz, et que Ton veid les premiers en guerre et parmy les 
compagnies; et n'en avions point veu encores parmy leurs bandes, lors que nous 
allasmes pour le secours de Malte; dont despuis nous en avons pris I'usage parmy 
nos bandes, mais avec de grandes difficultez a y accoustumer nos soldats comme 
j'en parle au livre des couronnelz. Et ces mousquetz estonnzarent fort les Flamans, 
quand ilz les sentirent sonner a leurs oreilles; car ilz n'en avoient veu non plus que 
nous: et ceux qui les portoient les nommoit-on Mousquetaires; tres bien appoinctez 
et respectez, jusques a avoir de grands et forts gojatz qui les leur portoient, et 
avoient quatre ducats de paye; et ne leur portoient qu'en cheminant par pays: 
mais quand ce venoit en une faction, ou marchans en battaille, ou entrans en garde 
ou en quelque ville, les prenoient. Et eussiez diet que c'estoient des princes, tant ils 
estoient rogues et marchoient arrogamment et de belle grace: et lors de quelque 
combat ou escarmouche, vous eussiez ouy crier ces mots par grand respect: Salgan, 
salgan los mosqueteros! Afuera, afuera, adelante los mosqiieteros! Soudain on leur 
faisoit place; et estoient respectez, voire plus que capitaines pour lors, a cause de 
la nouveaute, ainsy que toute nouveaute plaist." — Brantome, Vies des Grands 
Capitaines: "Le Grand Due d'Albe." 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 311 

The route lay via Alessandria de la Paille, St. Ambroise, Aosta, 
Turin, the Mont Cenis, St. Jean de Maurienne, and the valley of 
the Arve through Savoy. In spite of his small array it was neces- 
sary to divide the army into three parts, the advance guard, the 
"battle," and the rear guard. The "battle" each day occupied 
the place abandoned by the advance guard and was itself in turn 
replaced by the rear guard, the three divisions of the army 
marching one day apart. The duke of Alva commanded the 
advance guard, his son Don Ferdinand Alvarez de Toledo the 
"battle;" while the rear guard was under the command of the 
Italian, Ciappin-Vitelli, Marquis of Cetona formally in the service 
of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. The army thus divided occupied 
fourteen days in traversing Savoy. It was a long and toilsome 
journey through a wild and mountainous country, where the 
difficulties of the march were increased by constant dread of famine. 
In many places the country was completely sterile. In Burgundy 
the march was easier and twelve days brought the army via Dole 
and Gray to Fonteney near Toul, whence twelve days more brought 
Alva by Thionville to I^uxembourg (July 29), where he was joined 
by new forces.' 

In spite of the length of the march and the hardships of it, the 
duke retained his traditional iron discipline and the soldiers were 
not allowed to forage upon the country or to break ranks. ^ 

1 Mendoza, Comentarios, II, chaps, i-iii. There is a French translation 
of this work by Loumier (Soc. de I'histoire de Beige), 2 vols., i860. 

2 "The duke arrived in the Low Countries offending none in his passage nor 
being himself offended by any one, though the French appeared in arms upon the 
marches of Burgundy and Colonel Tavannes by command from the French king 
with 4,000 foot and some troops were defence of course of the borders, 'costed' 
the Spanish army. Indeed I do not think that ever army marched so far and kept 
stricter rules of discipline, so that from Italy even to the Low Countires, not only 
no towns but not any cottage was forced or injured." — Strada, VI, 31. 

The only instance of plundering seems to have been in the case of the property 
of the prince of Orange in Burgundy (C 5 P. For., 1562, August 7, 1567). This 
discipline is all the more remarkable, considering the fact that there were fifteen 
hundred women with the army. "Lon a sceu le passaige du due d'Albe et de sa 
trouppe; quon diet estre de six mille espaignolz et quinze cens femmes." — Guyon 
to M. de Gordes, July 11, 1567. Cited by the due d'Aumale, Histoire des princes 
de Conde, I, Appendix XVI. 



312 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

On August 12, 1567, the duke of Alva entered Brussels. Gen- 
eral terror prevailed in the Low Countries upon his arrival. The 
Prince of Orange left the land. Count Egmont, naively declaring 
that he had done nothing wrong, remained; his friend Hoorne 
imitated his example. Alva at once sent away all the Flemish 
soldiers and quartered the city with the new troops. In order 
to facilitate his policy the duke created a special tribunal, not 
composed of lawyers "because they would not condemn without 
proofs." This was the famous Council of Troubles which the 
people called the "Council of Blood." The members of it held 
no commissions from the King, but were the simple agents of the 
duke of Alva. The most celebrated of them was a certain Vargas, 
a criminal himself, against whom action had been suspended in 
return for his infamous services. 

If the policy of the Spanish government in Flanders took a new 
and different form with the coming of Alva, the revolution there 
was no less changed. The cardinal Granvella some months 
before this time had written to Philip II: "It is a general rule, 
in matters of state, that popular enterprises, if they do not terminate 
in the first outburst, generally vanish in smoke if the remedy for 
them be applied before they have time to follow up the movement." ^ 
He added that contemporary history afforded some striking 
examples of the truth of this observation. But the provinces he 
had lately governed were not of this category. For it is clear that 
a change had taken place in the nature of the Flemish revolt in the 
years 1565-67. The revolution by this time had passed through 
the earlier stages of defiance and rebellion and developed an organi- 
zation with a definite, set purpose before it. The formation 
of the Gueux was the clearest manifestation of this change. In 
its inception this famous group was an aristocratic body, composed 
solely of nobles, and the Spanish government had little fear then 
of its becoming a popular association.^ Granvella saw the simi- 

1 Poulet, II, 183, December 25, 1566. 

2 Morillon to Granvella, April 7, 1566: "Pas ce boult veult Ton gaigner le 
magistrat des villes et le peuple: que ne sera si facille comme Ton pense." — Poulet, 
I, 203. The following is explicit: "Et diet encores plus que, s'il se fust joinct 
"k la premiere lighe des seigneurs, la religion fust bien avant venue, car de la, dict-il. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 313 

larity of the Gueux to the Huguenot association formed at Orleans 
in 1562, but he did not anticipate the popular nature it was soon 
to develop.^ 

He was soon disillusioned. What was believed by the Spanish 
government to be a somewhat close political and aristocratic com- 
bination of nobles before long became a popular confederation 
of congregations having a religious propaganda, as well as a political 
purpose.^ Despite this change, however, Philip's minister did 
not yet believe the Gueux to be formidable. As Alva had declared 
at Bayonne that all that was necessary to destroy the Huguenot 
party in France was to kill the "big fish," so he now believed that 
if the leaders of the Gueux were cut off, their movement would die 

'tanquam ex fonte emanasse has undas,' et que le Roy le doibt entendri ainse et y 
pourveoir avant toutte euvre, puisque de celle la est nee la seconde de la religion." — 
Poulet, II, 75. Cf. 118: "la premiere lighe et la secunde engendree d'icelle." — 
Granvella to Viglius, November 23, 1566. As late as May 9, 1567, it is called "la 
gentille ligue" (Poulet, II, 434). Granvella, in a letter to Philip in 1563, attributed 
the formation of the association to Count Hoorne {Papiers d'etat du cardinal de 
Granvelle, VIII, 12). Noircarmes, who was better informed, makes Brederode 
the moving spirit of it (Poulet, II, 613, 614). 

The Gueux even had a branch organization, though one historically different 
in origin, in Franche Comte, in the Confrerie de Ste. Barbe. The seigneurs of the 
house of Rye enjoyed high civil and ecclesiastical station in both Burgundies in the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Marc and Claude Franfois of Rye, father and 
son, were rivals and political enemies of the Perrenots — the family of Granvella and 
Chantonnay — and regarded them as upstarts. The Confrerie de Ste. Barbe was 
organized by them in Franche Comte on lines similar to the Gueux and had dealings 
with the latter — the members even wearing their emblem. Cardinal Granvella 
accused the seigneurs of Rye of aiming to establish Protestantism, in Franche 
Comte from Flanders. This probably was true but in a less degree. Protestant 
agitation was a means to an end, not an end in itself, it seems to me. If otherwise, 
such a catholic title for the association is very singular. On the Confrerie de Ste. 
Barbe consult Poulet, I, 29; II, 44, 141. I am somewhat inclined to think that 
Tavanne's Confraternity of the Holy Spirit in ducal Burgundy may not impossibly 
have been influenced by the Confrerie de Ste. Barbe in the adjoining county of 
Burgundy, for Tavannes had a long political conflict with the Parlement of Dole 
in Franche-Comte (see Collection Godefroy, CCLVII, Nos. 22, 23), and was 
familiar with things there. 

1 Poulet, I, 223. 

2 Ihid., II, 269. This revised form of the Gueux in which Calvinism is inter- 
jected is often alluded to as the "second league" in the letters which pass between 
Granvella and the provost Morillon, e. g., ibid., 280, 437, 600. 



314 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

too.^ But Alva soon discovered that the Gueux were hardly ever 
weakened by the detachment of certain of the nobles either by 
bribery or intimidation.^ By the time of his arrival, under Brede- 
rode's able leadership, the Calvinists of the Flemish provinces had 
worked out a scheme of union in which every congregation was at 
once a parish, a rating precinct, a military hundred, and a political 
unit. Antwerp, whose population was so large and so cosmopoli- 
tan that police scrutiny could be easily evaded, and from which 
it was easy to make one's escape, was the capital of the association, 
as Orleans first, and later La Rochelle, was for the Huguenots.^ 

The Flemish government w^as soon alive to the necessity of 
breaking the power of this confederation.'* Membership in the 
confederation, if proved, was heavily punished. The retirement 
of the prince of Orange from the land was believed by the govern- 
ment to be due to a prudent effort to avoid being so compromised. 
It was certainly true of Brederode. But Egmont and Hoorne 
remained, declaring they had done nothing, and renewed their 
oath of allegiance to the King.^ Nevertheless Granvella sarcas- 
tically quoted Lycurgus that neutrals were more odious than 
enemies. "After the towns have been cleared out," wrote the 
provost Morillon, "it will be time to attack the garden in order to 
destroy the weeds and roots there," and Spain's agent at Amster- 
dam at the same time wrote: "God may pardon those who are 
the cause of one and the other league; but I assure you, unless I 
am much mistaken, that those who have made others to dance, 
have some other purpose than we know. Time will discover it.'"^ 

This somewhat long dissertation upon the nature and develop- 
ment of the confederation formed by Philip's II revolted subjects 

I Poulet, II, 42. 2 For some examples see ibid., 183. 

3 This organization seems to have been perfected by February, 1567. Poulet, 
II, 244, has a brief note on this matter. For an extended article see Bulletin 
historique et liUeraire de la societe de I'hist. du protestantisme Frangais, March, 1879. 
Cf. Gachard, Corresp. de Guill. le Taciturne, II, ex, cxi, and notes. Marnix was 
treasurer-general of the confederation (Poulet, II, 262, n. i). 

4 Poulet, II, 33;, 336, 396. "Sine qua factum nihil," wrote the provost, whose 
conception of government was Draconian in simplicity, to his confidential friend 
{ibid., 353). 

s Ibid.,- 469 and 508. "^ Ibid., 396, 438. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 315 

in Flanders is not a digression beside the mark. The number of 
Huguenots to be found in the Low Countries in 1566-67, intriguing 
with their coreligionists against Spain was very great. The duke 
of Bouillon and the prince of Porcien were the most prominent 
of these.' In the aggregate the number was so great and their 
participation so serious a matter for the government, that the 
maintenance of the frontier against the French was urged upon 
Alva as the first necessity, immediately after his arrival at Brussels.^ 
France for her own part began to erect a citadel at Verdun and to 
strengthen the Picard frontier, whose towns received new troops 
in June, and when word came that there were German troops in 
Luxembourg awaiting Alva's arrival, D'Andelot was sent to the 
frontier of Champagne with 6,000 Swiss which the government had 
levied. 3 This action ruffled Philip II's temper, for to him it was 
flaunting his failure to break the alliance of the Swiss with France 
in his very face. His ambassador in France protested energetically 
and charged the queen with duplicity.'* At Madrid the nuncio 
inquired with curiosity of Fourquevaux, in what spirit Philip II — 
who had had an audience with the ambassador the day before — 
received the news of France's activities in Switzerland. "I told 
him," wrote the ambassador to Charles IX, "that it was the usage 
and custom of great kings and princes whenever they saw 
their neighbors arming, to assure themselves also of their realms 

1 See Gachard, Corresp. de Philippe II, 461, 471, 473; Poulet, I, 461, 521; 
II, 102, 106, 139, 143, 187, 394, 440, 451, 659, 675. 

2 Morillon to Granvella, August 31, 1567, in Poulet, II, 605: "La premiere 
chose que I'on doibt faire sera de munir et asseurer les frontieres et renvoier chascun 
a son gouvernement, d'aultant que les Francois semblent voulloir esmouvoir, du 
moingz les Hugonaux." The cardinal had advised the duke of Alva to do this 
in the May preceding, when he was at Genoa on his way northward (Poulet, II, 
448, 454)- 

Montluc's repeated warnings to Philip II, in the course of their secret corre- 
spondence, of the succor French Calvinists were giving to his Flemish rebels (K. 
1,506, Nos. 46-48) led the King to enlarge the system of espionage which he main- 
tained in France. The movements of the admiral, the prince of Conde, and other 
leaders, were carefully reported {Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, V, 75, note). 
On the whole practice see Forneron, I, chap. xi. 

3 Mundt to Cecil from Strasburg, July 8, 1567 (C. 5. P. For., No. i, 418). 

4 Carres pondance de Catherine de Medicis, III, Introd., v. 



3i6 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

and states."^ Calais was a double source of anxiety, first because 
Spain, in pursuance of Alva's recommendation, had not been con- 
tent with fortifying Gravelines, but had actually built a fort of 
earth only five paces from the turnpike which marked the French 
limit; secondly, because at this embarrassing time Elizabeth of 
England had conceived the thought of reviving the English claim 
to Calais. ^ With the purpose of fathoming her son-in-law's designs 
Catherine sent the younger L'Aubespine to Madrid.^ War with 
Spain was already on the lips of some in France. "^ 

In spite of the wisdom of these military precautions on the part 
of the French crown, the Huguenots grew alarmed lest there w^as 
a movement on foot [to repress the edict. ^ There was designed 
intention in the unadmirable conduct of the prince of Conde, and 
perhaps some in that of CoHgny too. The prince craved chief 
command of the army, and a war with Spain was in a direct line 
with his aspirations. He had been well treated since the peace 
of Amboise, having been given the government of Picardy and the 

1 Fourquevaux (July 17, 1567), I, 237. St. Sulpice had held similar language 
in 1564: "Le meilleur moyen pour le prince d'avoir la paix est d'etre toujours en 
etat de repousser ses voisins." — U Ambassade de. St. Sulpice, 269. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 1,402, July 6, 1567. Sir Henry Norris writes to Cecil on 
March 25, 1567: "A better time than this could not be found to demand Calais, 
they being in such distrust of their own force, wherefore it might be understood that 
some preparation of arms was making in England." — Ibid., No. 1,048. A year 
earlier than this Cecil had been advised to make common cause with the Emperor, 
the one to recover the Three Bishoprics, the other Calais {ibid., No. 326, April 29, 
1566; cf. ibid., Ven., 394, July 3, 1567). There is a brief account of the negotiations 
in Bulletins de la Comm. royale d'histoire, series IV, Vol. V, 386 ff. Cf. C. S. P. 
For. (1587), Nos. 1039, 1044, 1046^ 1083. 

3 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, III, Introd., iii; C. S. P. Ven., Nos. 
389, May 16, 1567. 

4 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, III, Introd., iv. 

s "The prince of Conde wrote to the queen mother against the king's revoking 
the edict of pacification, who assured him on the faith of a princess that as long as 
she might prevail, she should never break it, and if he came to court, he would be 
as welcome as his heart could devise, and as for the Swiss they were to defend the 
frontiers in case the Spanish forces should attempt to surprise any peace." — Norris 
to Queen Elizabeth, August 29, 1567, C. S. P. For., No. 1,644. Catherine de 
Medici ordered the dispersal of the Huguenot bands on the Picard border in 
1567 {R. Q. H., January, 1899, p. 21). 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 317 

county of Rotrou, which was erected into a duchy under the name 
of Enghien-le-Franf ois. But his appetite for power was insatiable. 
In July, after angry speech with the King, Conde had retired 
from court, and was followed by the admiral, who gave out that 
that he had discovered "some practice that wholly tended to his 
confusion.'" 

It was small politics. In this time of external danger from the 
furtive designs of Phihp II and the blustering enmity of England, 
the honorable course of every subject of France was to stand by 
the King and the nation. The Huguenot leaders compromised 
the cause at large by indulging their personal vanity, their petty 
spite, their pique at such an hour. Friction there was, disagree- 
ment there was over the interpretation and the working of certain 
parts of the edict of Amboise. The Catholics, for example, com- 
plained that the intention of the edict was evaded by the Hugue- 
nots, asserting that in cases where the right of preaching was per- 
mitted to all barons and high justiciars only for themselves and 
their tenants, and for others of lower degree for their household 
only, congregational worship was held under cover thereof.^ 

The bigotry of Paris and its vicinity, though, was the worst 
source of disaffection. In the city district captains were chosen 

1 The words are from a letter of Sir Henry Norris to the earl of Leicester in 
C. S. P. For., No. 1,537, July 21, 1567, and sound like a paraphrase of the admiral's 
language. The implication is that Coligny's withdrawal had some connection with 
the purported stealing of Alava's cipher in the May before. See C. S. P. For., 
No. 1,230, May 24, 1567. But according to Fourquevaux, I, 227, the Spanish 
ambassador accused Catherine de Medici of the stealing, not Coligny. If this be 
true, then Coligny must have wanted to find a pretext for leaving the court without 
arousing the suspicion or animosity of the King, as might have been the case if he 
had done so openly out of sympathy for the prince of Conde. Claude Haton, I, 
406, says that Coligny was piqued because Strozzi was given the command of the 
new forces instead of himself. The prince of Conde retired to Valery, Coligny to 
Chatillon, D'Andelot soon afterward followed suit, resigning his post as colonel- 
general of infantry on the ground that the marshal Cosse refused to obey his orders 
and retired to Tanlay near Tonnerre. The fine chateau is still standing. 

Thenceforward it was of interest to the prince to stir up doubt and distrust 
among the Huguenots by misrepresenting the true reasons for the crown's military 
preparation {Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, III, Introd., vi; C. S. P. 
For., anno 1567, p. 305). 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 1,629, August 23, 1567. 



3i8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

by the populace to watch against Protestant activity — the nucleus 
of the famous Sixteen {Seize) of Paris in 1589-94. It would have 
been the height of political inexpediency, under such circumstances, 
to have tried to enforce the letter of the edict in the Ile-de-France. 
The July amendment of the edict of Amboise prohibiting exercise 
of Protestant worship throughout the Ile-de-France except in such 
places as should be licensed by the King, and the further one 
prohibiting Protestants from filling public offices in the cities,' 
I believe was framed for the purpose of avoiding conflict and not 
with any reactionary purpose. It is certainly of significance that 
the liberal chancellor L'Hopital favored them.^ Patience and 
experience would have worked out the solution of such difficulties 
as these. It was criminal in the prince of Conde to fan the ashes 
of the late civil war into flame once more. For in this tense state 
the prince deliberately exaggerated and misrepresented things 
for his own purpose and a spark from Flanders — Alva's arrest of 
the counts Egmont and Hoorne on September 9 — kindled France 
into flame again. 

The arrival of the news in France unfortunately coincided with 
the session of two synods of the Huguenots, one at Chatillon-sur- 
Loing, the other at Valery.^ Dismay prevailed in them. The 
preachers cried out that the arrest of Egmont and Hoorne^ was 
the proof of a secret alliance between Spain and France for th^ 
overthrow of Calvinism. The truth of Bayonne was out at last! 
Coligny's iron will might still have kept them in order, however, 
if in the midst of this excitement word had not also come that 6,000 
Swiss whom Charles IX had enrolled to cover the French frontier 
against the duke of Alva had entered France. The double news 
was too much for the excited minds of the Huguenots. The 
admiral and the prince who had failed to perceive the true policy 
of France in Switzerland, in desperation turned to the constable for 

1 Claude Haton, I, 405. 

2 C. S. P. Ven., July 12, 1567. 

3 La Popelini&re, XI, 36, 37. 

4 See Rosseeuw-Saint-Hilaire, "Le due d'Albe en Flandre. Proces des 
comtes d'Egmont et de Homes (1567-1568)," Seances et travaux de I'Acad. des 
sc. moral et poiit., 46 ser., XVI (LXVIe de la collect.), 1863, p. 480. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 319 

a word of truth and comfort. But the old Montmorency, who 
desired to have his son, the marshal Montmorency, succeed him 
in the office of constable' (which the prince of Conde coveted 
for himself), roughly rejoined: "The Swiss have their pay; don't 
you expect them to be used?"^ The words were brutally and 
thoughtlessly said. They merely imported anger. The Hugue- 
nots interpreted them to mean that they were to be overcome by 
military force, and Protestantism coerced, if not extinguished. 
The synod of the Huguenots at Valery^ resolved upon war. The 
conference was held in the admiral's chateau at Chatillon under 
the outward guise of a banquet. There were present the prince 
of Conde, La Rochefoucault, the cardinal of Chatillon, D' Andelot, 
Bricquemault, Teligny, Mouy, Montgomery, and other nobles of 
mark, besides some Huguenot ministers. The conference lasted 
the entire week, at the end of which it was resolved that all the 
Huguenots in France should be notified in every bailliage and 
seneschaussee, by the deacons and other officers of their congre- 
gation ; that they should be called upon to furnish money according 
to the means which they had, for the payment of reiters from 
Germany, which the count palatine of the Rhine was to levy; 
and that all the young men of the religion capable of bearing 
arms were to be enrolled for military service.'* 

The plan was as bold as it was simple. It was to gain possession 
of the King's person by a sudden coup de mam, for which purpose 
a force of 1,500 horse was to be brought secretly to Valery. The 
court at this time was residing at the Chateau de Monceaux near 
Meaux, and was without more than nominal military protection. ^ 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 1,155, May i, 1567. 

2 D'Aubigne, I, Book IV, chap. vii. 

3 This chateau was a gift to the prince of Conde by the widow of marshal 
St. Andre, who was infatuated with him. After the prince's second marriage she 
wedded Geoffrey de Caumont (Claude Haton, I, 363). See also Clement-Simon, 
La Marechale de Saint-Andre et ses fiUes, Paris, 1896. 

4 The rendezvous was a Rosay-en-Brie (La Popeliniere, Book XII, 37; 
D'Aubigne, IV, chap, vii; Claude Haton, I, 424, 425). 

5 The Venetian ambassador Correro, in his relation of the conspiracy, ex- 
presses astonishment that the secret of the Huguenot leaders did not leak out, and 



320 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

On the evening of September 24, the queen learned of the rendez- 
vous at Rosay-en-Brie. A midnight council was called. The 
Swiss, who had reached Chateau Thierry, were hastily summoned. 
The Lorraine party and the duke of Nemours advised immediate 
return to Paris. The chancellor and Montmorency endeavored 
to persuade the King against so doing. ^ The former pointed out 
that to go to Paris would be for the King to commit himself to the 
most bigoted of his subjects and destroy the possibility of an ami- 
cable settlement, while the constable argued that Meaux was a for- 
tified city capable of withstanding a siege, and that to leave it 
might be to court defeat in the open country. In the dilemma the 
Swiss colonel Pfiffer cast the die. 

"May it please your Majesty," cried he, "to entrust your 
person and that of the queen mother to the valor and fidelity of 
the Swiss. We are 6,000 men, and with the points of our pikes 
we will open a path wide enough for you to pass through the army 
of your enemies."^ 

attributes the fact to the perfection of the Protestant organization (quoted by La 
Ferriere in Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, III, ix). It seems to me that 
this feature was less due to perfect organization than to the promptitude with which 
Conde and Coligny endeavored to carry out the project. The lesson of the con- 
spiracy of Amboise seven years before could not have been lost upon them. More- 
over, the queen mother did have some intimation, notwithstanding her surprise 
when the shock came. For on September 10, while the court was staying at 
Monceaux, some armed bands of horsemen were seen hovering around, which 
which caused the King's hasty removal to Meaux (C. 5. P. For., No. 1,683, Septem- 
ber 13, 1567, Norris to Leicester). From that hour Catherine was on the alert, 
though she refused to attach alarmist importance to the signs she had seen until her 
eyes were opened. 

^ Claude Haton, I, 434. 

2 Zurlauben, Hist, milit. des Suisses, IV, 351; Laugel, "Les regimens »uisses 
au service de France pendant les guerres, de religion," Revue des deux mondes, 
November 15, 1880, pp. 332 ff. Pfiffer had served in France during the first civil 
war and was made a colonel after the battle of Dreux. There is a life of him in 
German by Segesser, Ludwig Pfyffer und seine Zeit, Bern, 1880. Other versions 
of this incident are in D'Aubigne, II, 230-32; Claude Haton, I, 428, 429; Castelnau, 
VI, chap, iv; De Thou, Book XLII; Neg. Tosc, III, 530. La Popeliniere, XII, 
38, 39, gives a good account of the behavior of the Swiss. The duke of Bouillon, 
an eye-witness of these incidents, has left a striking account in his Memoires, ed. 
Petitot, 75. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 321 

"Enough," Charles rejoined. "I would rather die free with 
you than live a captive among rebels."' 

The return to Paris began at four o'clock in the morning. 
"When the Swiss arrived at Meaux," wrote Correro, "I vow they 
were the most villainous looking gang I have ever seen. Yet in 
battle array they were admirable. Three times they turned upon 
the enemy and lowering their pikes charged upon them like savage 
dogs in serried ranks and in good order, without one being a pace 
in advance of another. Thus the King was able with his suite 
to get to Paris." ^ He reached the Louvre that night, travel- 
worn, hot, famished, and so angry that his fierce disposition 
never lost the memory of that humiliation. ^ 

The affair of Meaux came like a thunder-clap to most of France. 
The suddenness of the Huguenot action and the all but complete 
success of it astonished men. "This movement," wrote the Vene- 
tian ambassador, "of which several thousand men had knowledge, 
was conducted with such precaution that nothing leaked out until 
it was all but an accomplished fact. This could not possibly have 
been done without the perfect intelligence that exists among the 
Huguenots, and is a striking manifestation of their organization 
throughout the realm. "^ 

In the light of this judgment, it remains to describe the Hugue- 
not form of government. 

The ecclesiastical — and political unit — of French Calvinism 
was the congregation. Congregations were grouped "according 
to number and convenience" into colloquies or classes which met 
from two to four times each year, the division being made by the 

1 For Charles IX's own version of the affair of Meaux see a letter of the King 
to the baron de Gordes, begun at Meaux and finished at Paris, September 28, 1567, 
in Due d'Aumale, Histoire des princes de Conde, I, Appendix XXII. His letter 
to Montluc of the same date is in Archives de la Gironde, X, 437. 

2 Rel. ven., II, 187. 

3 The Guises made capital out of the event of Meaux and sedulously exploited 
the King's animosity. Martin, Histoire de France, IX, 216, suggests that Charles 
IX's conduct on St. Bartholomew's Day may have been influenced by this 
episode. 

* Rel. ven., II, 112, 113. 



322 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

authority of the provincial synod.' In church matters, no 
church had any primacy or jurisdiction over another, nor one 
province over another. ^ Ministers brought with them to local classes 
or provincial synods one or two elders chosen out of their consis- 
tories. ^ Elders who were deputies of churches had an equal power 
of voting with the pastors.'^ The authority of a provincial synod 
was subordinate to that of the national synod, ^ and whatever had 
been decreed by provincial synods for the government of the 
churches in their province had to be brought before the national 
synod. ^ The grand lines of division followed the historic pro- 
vincial divisions of France, but smaller provinces and parts of the 
larger ones, as Guyenne and Languedoc, were associated together. 
The national synod of 1559 divided France into sixteen Protestant 
provinces, as follows: (i) The Ile-de-France, Chartrain, Picardy, 
Champagne and Brie; (2) Normandy; (3) Brittany; (4) Orleans, 
Blesois, Dunois, Nivernais, Berry, Bourbonnais, and La Marche; 

(5) Touraine, Anjou, Loudunois, Maine, Venddme, and Perche; 

(6) Upper and Lower Poitou; (7) Saintonge, Aunis, La Rochelle, 
and Angoumois; (8) Lower Guyenne, Perigord, Gascony, and 
Limousin; (9) Upper and Lower Vivarais, together with Velay, 
and Le Foret; (10) Lower Languedoc, including Nimes, Mont- 

1 "Discipline of the Reformed Churches in France Received and Enacted by 
Their First National Synod at Paris in 1559," chap, vii, canon i, published in 
Quick, Synodicon in Gallia, 2 vols., London, 1692. 

The first consistorial regulation which we possess has been published by the 
Protestant pastor, Eugene Arnaud, from a manuscript at Grenoble. It bears 
the title ',' Articles Polytiques par I'Eglise Reformee selon le S. Evangile, fait a 
Poitiers 1557." See Synode general de Poitiers 1^57, Synodes provincianx de Lyon, 
Die, Peyraud, Montelimar et Nimes en 1^61 et 1562, assemblee des Etats du 
Dauphine en 156J, etc., par E. Arnaud. Grenoble, ed. AUier, 1872, 91 pages. 

At the synod of Lyons (1563) the canons of the three preceding national synods 
held at Paris, Poitiers, and Orleans, were reduced to a single series of articles. 
The deliberations of most of the provincial synods still remain in manuscript or 
are lost (Frossard, Etude historique et bibliographiqiie siir la discipline ecclesiastique 
des eglises rejormees de France, 18). 

2 Chap, vi, canon i. 

3 Chap, viii, canon 2. Chap, v, canon i, provides that "a consistory shall be 
made up of those who govern it (the individual churches), to-wit, of its pastors 
and elders." In some cases deacons discharged the elder's office (chap, v, canon 2). 

4 Chap, viii, canon 8. Elders were elected by the joint sutTrage of pastor and 
people, upon oral nomination (chap, iii, canon i). 

s Chap, viii, canon 9. ^ Chap, viii, canon 14. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 323 

pellier, and Beziers; (11) Upper Languedoc, Upper Guyenne, 
Toulouse, Carcassonne, Quercy, Rouergue, Armagnac, and Upper 
Auvergne; (12) Burgundy, Lyonnais, Beaujolais, Bresse, Lower 
Auvergne, and Gex; (13) Provence; (14) Dauphine and Orange; 
(15) Beam; (16) the Cevennes and Gevaudan.^ 

This administrative partition, however, did not remain fixed. 
Some provinces, Hke Brittany, had so few Protestants in them, 
that the Huguenots therein could not stand alone, and the first 
civil war brought out the weakness of this system. Accordingly, 
in 1563, the map of France was partitioned anew, and the former 
sixteen "provinces" were reduced to nine. Some of the changes 
made are interesting. For example, the Chartrain was cut off 
from the Ile-de-France and attached to the "province" of Orleans, 
manifestly in the endeavor to keep a connecting link between 
Normandy and the Loire country. Brittany was strengthened 
by the annexation of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine which formerly 
constituted an independent "province," w^hich obviously drew it 
into closer connection with the stronger Calvinistic provinces. 
The "province" of Upper and Lower Poitou was combined with 
Saintonge, Aunis, and Angoumois, thus knitting together all the 
country watered by the Charente, the Clain, and lesser streams. 
Burgundy, Lyonnais, Beaujolais, Bresse, Lower Auvergne, and 
Gex absorbed the small Huguenot province composed of Vivarais, 
Velay, and Le Foret. But the most interesting consolidation was 
in the south of France. Formerly Upper Languedoc, in which 
were Nimes, Montpellier, and Beziers; Lower Languedoc, com- 
prising Upper Guyenne, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Quercy, Rou- 
ergue, Armagnac, and Upper Auvergne; Provence; Dauphine, and 
Cevennes- Gevaudan had each formed separate "provinces." But 
in 1563 this immense territory was all united to form the great 
Huguenot province of Languedoc. The only ancient provinces 
which remained unchanged in 1563 were Normandy,^ Beam, and 
Lower Guyenne, with Perigord and Limousin. 

1 Chap, viii, canon 15. 

2 The synod of Nimes in 1572 also divided Normandy into two provinces 
(Synodicon in Gallia, I, 111,112). At the same time Metz was annexed to 
Champagne. 



324 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The Huguenot ecclesiastical organization and its political 
organization were one and the same. The congregations, the 
"colloquia," the synods, constituted both taxation units and mili- 
tary cadres.^ The strength of the Huguenot organization, how- 
ever, before the massacre of St. Bartholomew, I believe has been 
exaggerated, except in Guyenne where, in the vicinity of Nerac" 
especially, Montluc early came in contact with a powerful com- 
bination of the Huguenots.^ The strong elements in the Protest- 
ant organization were its simplicity and the vigilance of all, from 
provincial chiefs to simple pastors, who made up for scarcity of 
numbers by the most zealous activity.^ "If our priests," wrote 
the Venetian Correro in 1569, "were half so energetic, of a cer- 
tainty Christianity would not be in danger in this country."'^ It 
was not until after 1572 that the Huguenot organization reached a 
high point of mihtary and political development, when a solid fed- 
eration of the Reformed churches was formed at Milhaud in 1574, 
with rating precincts, military hundreds and civil jurisdictions. ^ 

Exactly as the early organization of the Huguenots has been 
overemphasized, so has the republican nature of the early Hugue- 
not movement been exaggerated. Apart from whatever religious 
motives may have actuated them, the Protestant nobles were influ- 
enced by political ambition; the bourgeoisie by the hope of adminis- 

1 Rel. ven., II, 115, and n. B; Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, II, Book V, 
338; L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 107; Memoires de Philippi, 360, col. i (ed. 
Buchon); Collection Godefroy, CCLVII, No. 46; Claude Haton, I, 425. 

2 The democratic revolutionary character of the Huguenot movement in 
Guyenne probably owes some of its intensity to the memory of the revolt of 1548 
and the merciless suppression thereof (observation of M. Henri Hauser, Rev. hist., 
XCVII (March-April, 1908), 341, n. 6, a review of Courteault Blaise de Montluc). 

3 "Temevano prima i cattolici, non perche fossero inferiori di numero (che 
.... del popolo minuto non vi e la trigesima parte ugonotta; la nobilita e piu 
infetta; e s' io dicessi di un terzo, forse non fallirei); ma perche questi; sebben pochi, 
erano pero uniti, concordi, e vigilantissimi nelle loro cose." — Rel. ven., IT, 120. 

The Huguenots fired guns instead of ringing bells as a signal of alarm (ibid., 
107). The tocsin, even before St. Bartholomew, was the Catholic signal. 

4 Rel. ven., II, 115. 

s Correspondence de Catherine de Medicis, I, 552; Ranke, Civil Wars and 
Monarchy in France, 287; Forneron, Les dues de Guise, II, 221; Anquetil, Histoire 
des assemblees politiques des rejormes de France, I, 18. 



THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES 325 

trative and economic reform; the masses by the general spirit of dis- 
content. The Huguenots did not present a united front until after 
St. Bartholomew, when the fusion of the political Huguenots with 
the Politiques reduced the "religious" Huguenots to a left-wing 
minority. Before 1572 the political ideas of the Reformed, if not 
still inchoate, were not harmonized into one homogeneous cause, 
backed up by a compact and highly organized political system. 
Individual political theorists or fanatic devotees, of course, were 
to be found in the Huguenot ranks, but there was no systematic 
political philosophy to guide their conduct before the massacre 
of St. Bartholomew. It was this catastrophe that crystallized 
Huguenot opinion and organized combination on a large scale. ^ 
In Guyenne, alone, where, as has been said, the Huguenot organi- 
zation was most completely developed at an early date, does any 
clear republican idea seem to have early obtained.'' 

1 Forneron, II, 164 ff.; Hist, de Langtiedoc, V, 543, 544; Armstrong, "The 
Political Theories of the Huguenots," English Historical Review, IV, 13; Merriam, 
History of the Theory oj Sovereignty since Rousseau, 13-15; Beaudrillart, Jean 
Bodin et son temps. 

2 "Si le roy tenoit sa loy, le royaulme en seroit mieulx regy et gouverne, les 
antiens, qui ont tenu les concilles, ont bien regarde a cella quant ilz ont uny nostre 
foy avec la continuation de la monarchie des princes, car ilz ont bien poyse que le 
peuple, qui est gouverne sous ung monarque, est beaucoup plus assure et tenu en 
la craincte de Dieu et a I'obeyssance qu'il doibt porter a son roy, que non celluy 
qui est soubz une republicque, en laquelle sa loy admene tout le monde et destruict 
les monarchies. Qui me voldra nyer que le roy prent ceste loy qu'il ne faille que sa 
personne mesmes et son royaulme soit regy et gouverne par les gens qui auront 
este esleuz par les estatz, qui sera son conseil sans lequel le roy ne pourra faire chose 
aucune. Et s'il veult une chose et le conseil une aultre, le pays ne fera sinon ce que 
le conseil ordonnera, parce qu'il aura este (esleu) par les estatz; et si le roy mesmes 
veult quelque chose pour luy ou pour aultre, fauldra que, le bonnet a la main, il le 
viegne demander a son conseil et les prier, la oil en nostre loy il commende au conseil 
et a tous, tant que nous sommes. Que Ton regarde des ceste genre ce que se faict 
en Angleterre et en Escosse, et si ce n'est plustost maniere d'aristocracie ou de 
democracie que non de monarchie. Et quand le roy sera grand, il voldra de- 
mander sa liberte, laquelle ne luy sera concedee et s'il faict semblant de la voloir 
avoir par force, son conseil mesmes luy couppera la guorge et feront un aultre roy 
a leur plaisir." — Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, IV, 297, 298 (December 1563). 
The baron de Ruble, in a note remarks: "NuUe part peut-etre, pas meme dans 
les ecrits de Francois Hotman et de Bodin, les reformes politiques que promettait 
le calvinisme ne sont exposees avec autant de clarte que dans ce memoire de Mon- 
luc." 



CHAPTER XII 
THE SECOND CIVIL WAR (1567-68) 

In this wise, after a respite of four years, the second civil war 
was precipitated. There* was an exodus of Huguenots at once 
from Paris, some repairing to the prince of Conde, some to the 
duke de Rohan, others to Montgomery in Lower Normandy where 
a war of the partisans began at once.^ The capital was in a furious 
mood and the King's presence alone prevented the Parisians from 
massacring the Protestants there and the Montmorencys.^ 

The chief effort of the Huguenots was to seize the towns on 
the Seine above and below Paris, in order to stay provisions, and 
so to compel the government to submit.^ The capture of the 
Pont de Charenton'^ by Conde's forces was a heavy blow to the 
government, as Charenton chiefly supplied Paris with wheat and 
flour. The Parisians fully expected to be attacked and made 
preparations therefor by breaking up the stones in the streets and 
piling them in heaps for ready service or taking them into their 
houses; at the same time they destroyed pent-houses and other 
similar insignificant structures in order that they might the better 
hurl their missiles.^ So suddenly had the war been begun that 
the blockade of Paris for the time being was almost Complete. 

1 Paulet to Cecil, October 13, 1567; C. S. P. Dom., Add. 

2 Neg. Tosc, III, 549. On September 29, 1567, permission was given the 
populace of Paris to arm themselves. — Lettres patentes du Roy Charles IX pour 
I'establissement des capitaines de la ville de Paris et permission aux citizens d'icelle 
de prendre les armes. Felibien, Histoire de Paris, III, 703, 704. 

3 La Popeliniere, XII, 39; Claude Haton, I, 439; La Noue, chap, xiv; C. S. P. 
For., No. 1,427, September 30, 1567. Norris gives the names of the towns taken 
by the prince of Conde's forces. — State Papers, Foreign, Elizabeth, Vol. XCIV 
No. 1,338. See Appendix XL According to Baschet, La diplomatie venitienne, 
543 and note, the prince of Conde planned to burn Paris. 

4 La Popeliniere, Book XII, 51, 51 his. The slaughter at the bridge was 
terrible. The King's captain and the color-bearer, who managed to escape to 
Paris, were hanged by Charles IX. — C. S. P. For., No. 1,804, November 2, 1567. 

5 Ibid., No. 1,763, October 14, 1567. '. ? 

326 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 



327 



Lagny on the Maine,' Charenton, Porchefontaine, Busanval, Argen- 
teuil, St. Ouen, Ambervilliers, and St. Denis constituted the inner 
zone of Huguenot control while farther out Montereau on the high- 
road to Sens, Etampes on the road to Orleans and in the heart 
of the wheat district that supplied the capital,^ Dourdan at the 
junction of the Blois-Chartres roads, and Dreux on the road 




PARIS AND ITS FAUBOURGS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 

toward Normandy, formed an outer circle. So closely was Paris 
invested that the windmills in the faubourgs of St. Denis, St. 
Honore, and Port St. Martin were burned by the Huguenots. The 
churches for leagues around were plundered of copes, chasubles, 
tunics, and other rich silk and satin garments. The Huguenot 
gentry made shirts and handkerchiefs out of the lace and linen of 

1 Claude Haton, I, 444-46. . 

2 C. S. P. Few., No. 407, October 18, 1567. 



328 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the clergy. But all gold and silver taken, as altar-vessels, crosses, 
chalices, were turned into the general spoil for the sake of the 
cause, ^ Forced loans were imposed upon small merchants and 
even the peasantry were constrained to forced labor, ^ so that the 
latter fled by hundreds to Paris. 

The ravages of the Huguenots were so great that they defeated 
the very purpose they had in mind. For thousands of the peas- 
antry, under cover of a liberal ordinance intended to provision 
Paris,^ drove their cattle into the city and carted thither the grain 
and provisions they had stored up against the winter, where they 
sold it cheap, rather than see it destroyed by " volleurs quilz pillent 
et brulent granges, maisons, moulins et font tout le mal qu'ilz 
peullent faire."^ Wine, meat, and bread were not dear in Paris; 
beechnut oil and oats were at a reasonable price. 

The queen mother, who looked to Alva for the most immediate 
aid, 5 sent the chancellor L'Hopital, the liberal marshal Vieille- 
ville, and Jean de Morvilliers, bishop of Orleans, to confer with 
the prince of Conde in order to gain time. But the prince was so 
elated with his successful blockade of Paris that his demands rose 
in degree, and could not be accepted by the government. Yet the 
nature of these demands is to be observed, for it is evidence of the 
fact that the conflict was becoming more and more a political one, 
and that the religious issue, if not a minor issue, at least was but 
an element in the programme of the Huguenots. Moreover, 
these demands are interesting for the reason that they represent 
a new stage in the evolution of the struggle and that henceforth 

1 Claude Haton, I, 439-45, and La Noue, chap, xvi, give some graphic details. 

2 Claude Haton, I, 444, 445. 

3 " Ordonnance du Roy, portant permission a toutes personnes, d'apporter, et 
faire apporter, conduire et amener a Paris, tant par eau que par terre, toutes especes 
de vivres, bleds, vins et autres; sans payer pour iceux aucunes daces, subsides, ou 
imposition quelconques." — Paris, R. Estienne, 1567. 

4 " Lettre addressee aux echevins de Rouen par un de leurs delegues," Bulletin 
de la Societe de I'histoire de Normandie, 1875-80, p. 279. The whole letter is of interest. 

s Alva's reply October 24, 1567, is in Correspondance de Philippe II, II, 594. 
Cf. Gachard, La Bibliotheque Nationale a Paris, I, 395; II, 459; and Histoire des 
troubles des Pays-Bas, ed. Piot, I, 293 (chap. xlvi). 



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THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 329 

they are a permanent contention of the Huguenots and ultimately 
are embodied in the Edict of Toleration. The prince, whose chief 
object was to overthrow the Guises and get the government of the 
King and the management of affairs into his own hands' insisted 
on the free exercise of religion throughout the realm without limi- 
tation or distinction of places or persons; that all taxes lately 
authorized should be remitted and all new forms of taxation im- 
posed since the reign of Louis XII abolished; that an accounting 
be made of the money granted for defraying the King's debts ; that 
all those who had been deposed from their offices on account of 
religion should be reinstated ; and that four fortified towns be placed 
in his hands as security for the good intentions of the crown. Fur- 
thermore, the prince demanded the dismissal of the Swiss and 
Spanish regiments.'' 

In due time the prince of Conde discovered that delay was 
disastrous. Although his force had daily increased by new acces- 
sions from the south,^ nevertheless the Huguenot position was 
not so strong as it appeared. Paris rallied to the cause of the King 
and gave him 400,000 ecus, while the clergy advanced 250,000.4 
The duke of Guise was in Champagne with troops of Champagne 
and Burgundy, besides eight companies of men-at-arms. ^ More- 
over, recruits were pouring in to help the King, some from the duke 
of Savoy,^ some from Piedmont under command of Strozzi, whose 
approach the admiral and De Mouy tried to prevent, and some 
from Pope Pius V, who bestirred himself in behalf of France as 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 1,789, October 27, 1567. 

2 These demands were presented in writing to the queen's emissaries. 
De Thou, Book XLII; Claude Haton, I, 447; D'Aubigne, II, 232-34, have 
summarized them. La Popeliniere, Book XII, 41-43 gives t he text. There is 
a monograph by Baguenault de Puchesse: Jean de Morvilliey, eveque d'Or- 
leans: Etude sur la politique frangaise au XV I' siecle, d'apres des documents 
inedits, Didier, Paris, 1870. 

3 La Popeliniere, Book XII, 50 bis; C. S. P. For., No. 1,856, October 10, 1567. 

4 Davila, I, 195. 

5 C. S. P. For., No. 1,777, October 22, 1567. 

6 A list of ofi&cers and the number of horsemen commanded by each who were 
sent to the king of France by the duke of Savoy. — C. S. P. For., No. 1,735, Sep- 
tember, 1567. 



33 o THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

soon as he was informed of the renewal of hostihties once more.^ 
The Huguenots made strenuous efforts to break the Swiss alHance 
and to persuade the Protestant Swiss cantons to withdraw. But 
fortunately for the French crown, the cantons remained firm, 
for without the assistance of Swiss troops, Charles IX would have 
been hard put to it for an army, for he dared not accept the all too 
interested offers of Philip 11.^ As in the first civil war, both par- 
ties looked to Germany for assistance^ and the queen mother 
sent Lignerolles "to practice the stay of the reiters, and on 
his return, to the count palatine to desire him not to succor the 
prince and his associates, affirming that their rising was not 
of any zeal of religion, but only to rebel against their prince."'* 

^ He wrote to Philip II, to Emanuel Philibert of Savoy, and the Venetian 
government urging them to succor Charles IX "against the rebels and heretics" 
within his kingdom, and to the duke of Lorraine to stop the reiters. — Potter, 
Lettres de St. Pie V sur les affaires religieuses de son temps en France, Paris, 1828. 
To Philip II, October 13, 1567 — Potter, p. i (ed. Gouban, Book I, No. 22, p. 50); 
to the duke of Savoy, October i8, 1567 — Potter, p. 8 (ed. Gouban, Book I, 
No. 25, p. 54); to Priuli, Venetian ambassador in France, October 18 — Potter, p. 6 
(ed. Gouban, Book I, No. 24, p. 53). At the same time the Pope wrote to the 
duke of Nevers in terms of rejoicing that Charles IX had escaped at Meaux. — 
Potter, p. 3 (ed. Gouban, Book I, No. 23, p. 51), October 16, 1567. Within 
a month the Pope's word began to be made good, for 10,000 pieces of gold were 
en route to France in the middle of November. — Potter, p. 10 (ed. Gouban, 
Book I, No. 26, p. 56), letter to the duke of Savoy of November 16, 1567. In it the 
Pope says he has written the duke of Lorraine to stop the reiters about to enter 
France. 

2 The question of payment of the Swiss still remained to be settled and 
Charles IX was at his wits' end and actually offered a mortgage of his frontier 
towns, save Lyons and the frontier of Burgundy, paying 5 per cent, interest in 
order to quiet the importunate demands of the cantons.^ — Revue d'histoire diplo- 
matique, XIV (1900), 49, 50. 

3 Request of Charles IX to the bishop of Mainz to permit the reiters to pass, 
December 9, 1567. — Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, No. 4. John Casimir, second son 
of the elector palatine, Frederick III, levied troops for the Protestants. When 
protest was made against this action, he gave an evasive reply. See Languet, 
Epist. seer., I, 27; Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, II, 163, 164; La Noue, 
ed. 1596, p. 897. 

On the other hand the landgrave was hostile to the prince of Conde and was 
fearful also of compromising himself with the Emperor and Spain. — Archives de 
la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 128, 164; Languet, Epist. seer., I, 35. 

4C. 5. P. For., No. 1,864, December 15, 1567. 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 331 

The Huguenots also made overtures to Philip II's revolted 
subjects.' 

By the middle of October the prince of Conde discovered that 
he was lying between two enemies, Paris and the new troops coming 
up, and every day added to his peril. There can be little doubt 
but that the queen mother purposely protracted the negotiations, 
knowing that by so doing Conde's security would be diminished. 
Signs were not wanting to indicate that matters were coming to a 
head. On October 7 the King sent a herald to the prince to pro- 
claim that all who were with him should unarm and repair to 
Paris, whereby they might save their lives and goods, which, if 
they refused to do so, should be confiscated. 

The same day the constable declared how the King, trusting to bring 
certain of his subjects to good conformity by his clemency, had sent his chancel- 
lor to assure them that his edicts made for religion and pacification should be 
inviolably kept, and that no man should be molested for the same; and that 
touching other small articles he was in full mind to have satisfied them. Not- 
withstanding, they would not submit themselves to any reason; wherefore the 
King was fully resolved to declare them rebels and prosecute them accordingly, 
for the maintenance whereof he would venture both body and goods. On 
October 8 proclamation was made that if the prince with his associates would 
submit themselves to the King within three days he would freely pardon all 
that was past; but if they refused, they were to be accounted as rebels and it 
was to be lawful to all the King's subjects to kill all such as they should find 
armed. In expectation of battle, the constable was made lieutenant-general 
of the King's army.^ 

Yet despite the precariousness of his situation the prince was 
still confident. His pride was hardened by the capture of Orleans 
by La Noue on September 28,^ and of Soissons.'' He enlarged the 

1 This is shown by a passage in which the elector of Saxony makes mention of 
an alliance which the French nobles had offered {Archives de la maison d'Orange- 
Nassau, III, 131, 134). Although the prince of Conde in December declared that 
he had not entered into a treaty with the Flemish Calvinists {ibid., 143), it is prob- 
able that these proposals were accepted some months later. There is in existence the 
minute of a treaty with Conde and Coligny dated August, 1568 {ibid., Ill, No. 
321, p. 285). 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 1,756, October 10, 1567. 

3 La Popeliniere, XII, 52 bis; D'Aubigne II, 236. La Noue himself, with 
characteristic modesty, scarcely mentions this feat. 

4 "Journal de Lepaulart relig. du monastere de Saint-Crepin-le-Grand de 
Soissons, sur la prise de cette ville par les Huguenots en 1567," Bull. d. Soc. arch., 
XIV (Soissons, i860). 



332 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Protestants' demands, requiring that Calais, Boulogne, and Metz' 
be delivered to them as surety, that the King disarm first and that 
one church of every "good town" in France be permitted to those 
of the religion; and that 300,000 francs be granted the prince to 
pay his troops, "whereby they may return hence without pillage."^ 
The crown scornfully rejected the terms and assumed a rapid 
offensive. On the night of November 6 Strozzi's band destroyed 
a bridge of boats planked together which the prince had made in 
order more effectually to cut off Paris; on the following day 
another point on the river which threatened Paris was captured 
by the duke of Nemours, and on the 9th Conde was compelled to 
withdraw from Charenton after breaking the bridge and firing the 
town. On November 8 the prince had made the blunder of weaken- 
ing his main force by sending D'Andelot to seize Poissy and Mont- 
gomery to get possession of Pontoise, the two open places in the 
inner zone of steel drawn around Paris. ^ The crisis of real battle 
came in their absence, on November jo, the battle of St. Denis. 
It was a fierce and bloody fray beginning about 3 o'clock and 
lasting till dark, in which both sides suffered severely. Mont- 
morency, "more famous than fortunate in arms," was twice slashed 
in the face by a cutlass and then shot in the neck and the small 
of his back by pistol bullets fired by the Scotch captain named 
Robert Stuart^ serving with the Huguenots. The old veteran, 
thinking his assailant did not recognize him, cried out: "You do 
not know me. I am the constable." But the Scot, as he fired, 
replied: "Because I know you, I give you this!"^ Though the 
white-liveried horsemen of Conde passed through and through 
the King's soldiery and though the constable was mortally wounded 
the battle was not won by the prince.^ On November 14 the Hugue- 

1 C. S. p. For., No. i,8o4) November 2, 1567. Metz was captured late in 
October by the Huguenots, but not the citadel. 

2 Ihid., No. 1,822, November i6, 1567. 3 La Popeliniere, XII, 52. 

4 On the identity and career of Robert Stuart, see Claude Haton, I, 458, n. 2. 

5C.' S. P. Ven., No. 410, November 11, 1567. Montmorency lingered two 
days and died on November 12. 

6 There are accounts of the battle of St. Denis in La Noue, Memoires, chap, xiv; 
Mem. du due de Bouillon, 379; D'Aubigne, Book IV, chap, ix; Claude Haton, I, 
457; Neg. Tosc, III, 551 ff. The editor has subjoined a note (2) giving the litera- 
ture of the subject. 



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THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 333 

not army filed out of St. Denis "without sound of trumpet or stroke 
of drum." The prince estabhshed temporary headquarters at 
Montereau toward Sens, but later moved up the Marne to the 
vicinity of Troyes with the duke of Guise following slowly after 
him, in order to effect a junction with the reiters of duke Casimir 
of the Palatinate, which the government was unable to prevent.^ 

The presence of the Huguenot forces seemed like the return 
of the reiters to the folk in Champagne, who hid their treasures 
in stables, gardens, chimneys, and the like. Some concealed their 
money and jewels in crannies in the walls; others hid them in the 
swaddling clothes of babes. But even this was to no purpose, 
for the soldiers plucked the children from the very breasts of their 
mothers and stripped them in order to find what was hidden upon 
them.^ 

After the battle of St. Denis two opinions divided the King's 
council. Some urged the queen, who was at Fontainebleau, to 
make new overtures; others, who reflected the opinion of Paris, 
were for pursuing the war. The queen mother acted upon the 
first suggestion, but nothing came of the overtures because the 
King insisted upon disarmament of the Huguenots before consid- 
ering their terms. ^ Active preparations were therefore made to 

1 Claude Haton, I, 495; Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, III, Introd., xv. 
The duke of Guise was criticized for not having pursued the Huguenots more 

hotly and cut the road by Charenton, or Corbeil, or at the ford of Lagny, which 
might have been done, for their army was in great disorder and depressed on account 
of the losses which it had suffered. The reason of the delay is probably to be found 
in the fact that the breach between the Guises and the Montmorencys was wider 
than ever at this moment. For the duke of Montpensier and the duke of Mont- 
morency each claimed command of the vanguard. The King finally decided in 
favor of the former, whereupon Montmorency laid down his command. See 
Claude Haton, I, 461, 462 and note; Bulletin de la Societe d'histoire de Normandie, 
1875-80, p. 279; C. S. P. For., No. 1,833, November 24; No. 1,837, November 29, 
1567; Neg. Tosc, III, 557. 

2 Claude Haton, I, 495 and note. 

3 The admiral sent Teligny to the King on November 13 for this purpose. — 
C. S. P. For., No. 1,822, November 16, 1567; cf. No. 1,836. We know, from a 
letter of Charles IX to his brother, what the King's terms would have been: (i) in 
the case of nobles, authorization of Protestant worship to those possessed of high 
justice or possessors of "pleins fiefs de haubert" i. e., fiefs that were noble, yet did 
not confer title, provided it were conducted within their own dwellings in the pres- 



334 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

push the war in the provinces, somewhat to the surprise of the 
Cathohc gentry who had thought it was finished on the field of 
St. Denis. ^ Camps of artillery, the infantry, and the Swiss were 
established at Voulton, St. Martin-des-Champs, Gymbrois, and 
other points in Champagne and Brie, while the cavalry was lodged 
in other parishes. Garrisons were also posted in the chateaux 
and maisons fortes of the Huguenots in the region. Without 
counting the territory covered by the advance guard of the King's 
army, a strip of territory was occupied over ten miles long and six 
wide, and containing more than fifty thousand persons.^ For 
the feeding of this host, an ordinance of the master of the camp 
ordered the seizure of all the local bakeries, the necessary grain being 
commandeered from the merchants and farmers of the locality. 
Besides these provisions the soldiery, since they were quartered 

ence of their families and not more than fifty outside persons, and without arms; 
(2) absolute limitation of other worship to the places specifically granted in the 
edict of Amboise; (3) surrender of places and property seized by the Huguenots; 
(4) suppression of the Protestant cult within the walls, of Lyons, but permission 
to worship at two leagues' distance from the city; (5) interdiction of levies of money 
or men in the future and the discontinuance of Protestant associations and synods. 
— Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, Introd., xiv. It is a very remarkable 
fact that these precise terms had been recommended to Charles IX as' a basis of 
settlement by Montluc in a memoir sent to the King in February 1565. See Coni- 
mentaires et lettres de Montluc, V, 3-9. Montluc made the further recommendation 
that the governments be divided by senechaussees instead of by rivers, on the ground 
that rivers sometimes divided towns into two jurisdictions. His friction with 
Damville (cf. ibid., 103-6) probably accounts for the proposed change. Montluc 
also advised abolition of the vice-senechaux {ibid., 8). 

1 See the proclamation of Charles IX commanding the provost Paris to 
search out all gentlemen who have retired to their homes since the battle of St. Denis; 
and ordering them to return to the army under pain of forfeiture of their fiefs and 
property. Printed in Appendix XII. In the second part of Coll. de St. Petersbourg, 
Vol. XXI, is a group of letters from Charles IX to the duke of Anjou running from 
December 2, 1567. In every page the question of the military operations of the 
second civil war comes up. It is evident that the gentlemen of the maison dii roi 
complained loudly of the service required of them, especially because they were so 
ill lodged. — La Ferriere, Deux ans de mission a St. Petersbourg, 24. 

2 During the occupation of the army all Protestant children who had been 
baptized in the Reformed religion by preachers were rebaptized according to the 
rites of the Roman religion, and godfathers and godmothers were given them and 
new names which were approved by the church. — Claude Haton, I, 512 and note. 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 335 

on households, freely consumed bread, meat, wine, and other 
food where they were, without payment. 

The presence of the King's troops was a heavy drain upon the 
resources of the region, more especially since the summer had been 
so dry that the crops were thin. Indeed so great was the drought 
that even swamps grew dry and there were public prayers and 
processions for rain in all the parishes of France. Fortunately 
rain fell in time to save the vines so that the wine did not fail, else 
the condition of France would have been one of great distress.^ 

On November 20 two thousand horsemen arrived in Paris from 
Flanders. The hope of the French Protestants was chiefly pinned 
upon John Casimir of the Palatinate, son of the elector Frederick, 
and a force of German reiters, the expectation of whose coming 
had induced Conde to move eastward toward Troyes. The 
count palatine drew a sharp line in his own mind between religion 
and politics. He would have been quick to resent any invasion 
of his rights as a ruler. But he did not understand French politics, 
and looked upon the Huguenot movement as a purely religious 
one to which he felt bound to give support because he was a zealous 
Protestant.^ The French government sent the bishop of Rennes 
and Lignerolles to endeavor to dissuade the count palatine; they 
affirmed that the rebellion of Conde was not for any zeal of religion 
but for political advantage. But the prince's emissary outmatched 
the bishop and his colleague, assuring the count palatine that 
the sole cause of the Huguenot insurrection was the preservation 
of the free exercise of religion, together with their honor, lives, 
and goods. 3 The argument of Charles IX that the estate of him- 
self and realm was so intermingled with that of religion that the 
count palatine could not touch one without offense to the other, 
was not convincing to Casimir. ^ 

1 Claude Haton, I, 504-12. 

2 On December 6 he published a declaration in favor of the Huguenots. — 
Bulletin de la Societe dii prot. frang. XVI, 118. See also C. S. P. For., No. 1,920, 
the elector to Charles IX, January 4, 1568. 

3 C. S. P. For , No. 1,911, from the camp at Dessay, January 3, 1568. 

"i Ibid., No. 1,806, November 3, 1567; No. 1,864 § 2, December 15, 1567. 
His resolution to assist the Huguenots led to the dismissal of his ambassador at the 



33^ THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

T® add t» Catherine's anxiety the Emperor revived the old 
project t® seize the Three Bishoprics,^ a project made doubly 
dangerous by the new machinations of the cardinal of Lorraine. 
For, in order to safeguard the Catholic cause in France and to save 
Metz from being lost entirely after the Huguenots had captured 
the citadel in October, the cardinal of Lorraine, had resumed his 
secret negotiations with Spain. Instead, however, of writing direct 
to Philip II he wrote to Alva, for time was pressing and the danger 
great. On November i, 1567, a chaplain of the cardinal appeared 
before the duke in Antwerp bearing a letter imploring Alva to 
come to the assistance of the French crown and offered to put him 
in possession of certain places in France. At first Alva was so 
incredulous that he imprisoned the bearer^ until he was satisfied 
of the verity of his mission. Nevertheless he immediately sent 
3,000 horsemen into the country of Seyn (between Wied and Bas- 
Isenberg) whose ruler was a pensioner of Spain, ordered count 
Mansfeldt to go to Luxembourg, and dispatched a message to the 
margrave of Baden for 1,000 horsemen with the object of prevent- 
ing Germans going to France or the war there from spreading to 
the Spanish provinces. Finally, when persuaded of the truth of 

French court on December 17th. — Ibid., No. 1,889. I^ ibid., No. 1,956 there is an 
abstract of a long letter of the elector palatine written to Charles IX in remon- 
strance of the action of the King, and in justification of his own course. 

1 A meeting of the electors was called for January 6, 1568, at Fulda, ostensibly 
for the purpose of preventing German enrolments for the war in France, but in 
reality that the Emperor might broach the possibility of recovering the Three 
Bishoprics. — Mundt to Cecil, January 6, 1568 in C. S. P. For., No. 1,927. I 
cannot understand how Hubert Languet could have fallen into the error of thinking 
that the queen mother made no opposition to the enlistment of troops in Germany 
for the Huguenot cause, as he says in Epp. Arc, I, 43. The statement puzzled 
Ranke (p. 233) who left it unsolved. The dispatch of Norris in C. S. P. For., 
No. 1,864, December 15, 1567, to the effect that Lignerolles was sent to Germanyy 
by the queen for this purpose clears up the matter. Catherine's correspondence 
fails us on this head. But it is well known that many of her letters are scattered 
in private collections and were not procurable by La Ferriere. 

2 Alva had no flattering opinion of the cardinal of Lorraine. In 1572 he 
wrote to Philip II: " Quand en faveur il est insolent et ne se souvient de personne, 
tandis que, quand il est en disgrace, il n'est bon a rien." — Gachard, Correspondance 
de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, II, 267. 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 337 

the cardinal's overtures, Alva said that if circumstances so developed 
as to make such action on his part an imperative duty before the 
King of France could be apprised, he would do so; and that if the 
King were overwhelmed by the Huguenots, he would believe it 
his duty for the sake of protecting the Catholic faith to occupy 
the places offered by the cardinal, which might be held in pawn 
by Spain as collateral for French repayment of her services.^ But 
the treasonable designs of the cardinal of Lorraine went even far- 
ther than an offer to surrender some of the border fortresses of 
France into Spanish hands. As early as this time the possible 
deposition of the house of Valois was contemplated by the Guises 
in favor of the Spanish-Hapsburg dynasty. For the cardinal 
went on to say that in event of the early death of Charles IX and 
his brothers Philip II of Spain would be heir to the throne of France 
through his wife, Elizabeth of Valois. "The Salic law is a pleas- 
antry," he added, "and force of arms could overcome any opposi- 
tion"!^ "This last," wrote Alva to Philip, "is a different matter 
and I cannot risk taking a hand in it without express instructions 
from your Majesty." 

The habitual self-control of the Spanish monarch must have 
been heavily taxed to subdue his emotion when he learned of this 
astonishing negotiation. But he was true to his second-nature. 
Without apparent excitement he endorsed the document thus: 
"This point is one upon which more time is needed to reflect, 
because it would be difficult to do what the cardinal asks without 
compromise. On the other hand, it is hard to decline for such 
a cause what is thrown into my arms. However, I think that a 

1 Gachard, ibid., I, 593, 594, Alva to Philip, November i, 1567. On the 
margin of this dispatch Philip wrote this piece of casuistry with his own hand: 
"Me parece muy bien que hiziese lo que aqui dice, y tanto mas que aquello no hera 
romper la paz, pues yo no la hize, ni la tengo, sino con el rey de Francia, y no con 
sus vasallos ereges, como seria, si esto se hiziese no estando el libre, como aqui se 
dice." 

2 "Encaso de muerte del rey y de sus hermanos, tomarse ya la voz que el 
cardinal dize de rey de Francia para V. M., por el derecho de la reyna nuestra 
senora; que la ley salica, que dizen, es baya, y las armas la allanarian" (ibid., 
594). 



33^ THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

decision in this matter is not urgent. Let the duke inform me 
what he thinks about it, according to the state of things there.'" 
Was it caution, or hesitation, or procrastination ? 

As an intermediate course, one less compromising and perhaps 
quite as effective in the long run, Alva suggested, although with 
some misgiving, to the cardinal of Lorraine that he come in person 
to the relief of the French crown. ^ While he was debating this 
question with himself, news came of the battle of St. Denis and 
of the approach of the reiters; and hard upon this, word from 
Catherine de Medici asking for the aid of 2,000 Spanish arque- 
busiers against the reiters. ^ The duke of Alva, in reply, after 
chiding Catherine for not accepting the offers of assistance he had 
made immediately after Meaux,'^ offered to send 2,000 arquebusiers 
and 2,000 cavalry — ^he could not now spare the great force he had 
proffered earlier — to the assistance of the duke of Aumale against 
the reiters,^ although admitting, with grim pleasantry, that there 
was a certain humor in casting firebrands into a neighbor's house 
when one's own was burning.^ But the offer came too late to be 
of service, thus fortunately sparing Catherine from the humiliation 

1 "Esto es el punto en que me parece que ay mas que mirar, porque esto se 
podria mal hazer sin romper; y por otra parte, parece que seria duro dexar de 
abrazar a quien por tal causa se pone en mys manos; y pues creo que por este caso 
avra tiempo, qu'el me avise de su parecer sobre ello, segun alia estubienen las 
cosas." — Gachard, loc. cit. 

2 Philip II approved this. — Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II, I, 598: 
to Alva, November 12, 1567. 

3 Gachard, I, 606-7, from Paris, December 4, 1567; Correspondance de Cath- 
erine de Medicis, Letter CLII; Correspondance de Philippe II, I, 605-7. The 
queen mother seems to have been frightened after the battle of St. Denis for she 
disclaims blame in advance, "before God and all the Christian princes," if, in 
default of help, she be forced to make peace with the prince of Conde. At about 
the same time, she also wrote to Philip II in the same strain (quoted in part by 
Forneron, I, 348 from K. 1,507, No. 29). I do not find that this letter has been 
printed. 

4 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, II, 62. 

5 Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, I, 608. 

6 "Porque seria mala burla yr a meter fuego en casa agena, comenjandose d 
arder la propria." — Ibid., 597: Alva to Philip II, November 6, 1567. 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 339 

of having introduced in France a power whose purpose was the 
overthrow of France.^ 

In the meantime, while Conde was encamped between Sens^ 
and Troyes, the reiters had entered Lorraine to the number of 
about six thousand. ^ Their coming thwarted the plans of the 
duke of Guise, who was on the frontier with the marshal Tavannes, 
for it prevented the French commanders from joining with Count 
Mansfeldt and the duke of Lorraine and compelled them to fall 
back.4 The junction of Conde and the reiters was effected on 
December 28, and a camp estabhshed at Dessay. The King's 
army of all sorts comprised 30,000 footmen and half as many 
horse. 5 Nevertheless, despite the adverse prospect, the govern- 
ment did not waver. The capital was intensely loyal. In response 

1 It was a propos of Catherine de Medici's weakness at this time that the 
marshal Vieilleville bluntly said to Charles IX.: "Ce n'est point Votre Majeste 
qui a gagne la bataille [of St. Denis]; encore moins le prince de Conde. C'est le 
roi d'Espagne." — Weiss, L'Espagne sous Philippe II, I, 119. 

2 On the military state of Sens at this time see Charles IX's postscript to his 
mother's letter to Fourquevaux of December 7 in Correspondance de Catherine de 
Medicis, III, 89, note. 

3 Norris, writing to Queen Elizabeth on December 15, in one place says, 
"the reiters are 4,000 with 4,000 lansquenets" (§2); later in the course of the same 
letter, which is a long one and probably the information of several days running, 
he says, "6,800 with 6,000 lansquenets" (C. 5. P. For., No. 1,864, December 15, 
1567). This seems to be confirmed by another report from France, December 26, 
which says "the reiters who have arrived amount to 6,500 men" (ibid.. No. 1,882). 

'^ Ibid., No. 1,864 §2, No. 1,882, December 15-26, 1567. The reiters came 
"with certain pieces of artillery and 700 or 800 empty wagons, trusting to be no 
greater losers by this dissension than by the last" (ibid., No. 1,864, §3^ Norris to 
Elizabeth). 

s Ibid., No. 1,889, December 28, 1567; No. 1,911, January 3, 1568. In ibid., 
Nos. 1,976 and 2,011, the following is given as the strength of the two armies: 
"Army of the King, 20,600 horsemen and 10,000 Swiss footmen; the numbers of the 
other footmen are not set down. Conde's army, footmen 13,000; horsemen 11,900 
where of reiters 6,200" — January, 1568. List of the troops of the prince of Conde 
with their commanders, amounting in all to 15,000 or 16,000 foot, and 14,000 
horse, exclusive of those in garrison or serving in other parts of France — February 
15, 1568. Norris wrote in February, 1568: "The prince has crossed the Seine, 
and is at present nothing inferior in number to the King's army in infantry, but they 
are not esteemed so good for battle by reason of the Switzers. He has 3,000 more 
cavalry than the king has." — Ibid., No. 1,981. 



340 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

to a call of the King, the Parisians made a general muster of 30,000 
and offered 1,200,000 francs for the maintenance of the war.^ 

Tentative efforts, however, were even yet made to make peace, 
to the indignation of the Parisians.^ The insistence of Charles IX, 
though, upon an immediate laying-down of arms was an effective 
obstacle to any cartel that might have been arranged. In reply 
to the articles sent by the King to the prince of Conde, the latter 
responded that the Protestants had no intention to prescribe the 
law to the King, but only humbly to require such things as were 
necessary for the liberty of their consciences and the preservation 
of their lives and goods, namely, that the edict of Orleans should 
be observed without any alterations; that bailiwicks should be 
appointed for the free exercise of religion; that they should be 
preserved in the enjoyment of their estates and ofi&ces; that those 
of Lyons should have the same liberty as the rest of the subjects 
of the realm; that synods should be permitted, and that the Edict 
of Pacification should be declared irrevocable.^ 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 1,864, §4. December 15, 1567. Names of the different no- 
blemen commanding in the army of the King of France (ibid., No. 1,918, January 4, 
1568). Letters-patent of Charles IX, dated December 16, 1567, ordered the exodus 
of all of the "pretended Reformed religion" from Paris and enjoined the seizure of 
all their benefices and lands, which were to be annexed to the crown property, and 
the sale of all the goods of such subjects (ibid., Nos. 1,877, i;878, December 21-24, 
1567). In January a supplementary order commanded the sale of all goods and 
movables of those with the prince of Conde, and the annexation of all their lands 
and hereditaments to the crown (ibid., 1,914, January 3, r568) — decrees which 
"were not left unexecuted in any point to the utmost" (Norris to Cecil, ibid.. No. 
1,889, December 28, 1567, §1). Cf. Charles IX's letters-patent of February 2i> 
1568, bidding that the houses and real property held by base tenure belonging to 
rebels shall be sold in the same manner as personal property (ibid., No. 2,2oo» 
February 21, 1568). The same sort of measures were practiced elsewhere. For 
instance, in Agen, Protestant merchants suffered confiscation of grain and wine to 
the amount of 1,014 livres, 7 sous (Arch. Commun., Agen, Reg. CC, 302). 

2 The original letter of Charles IX, written from Paris, December 17, 1567 
to the duke of Anjou, reciting the terms of peace to be presented to the prince of 
Conde was sold in Paris in 1845. The duke's instructions were to renew hostil- 
ities if the terms were not accepted. In Coll. Godefroy, XCVI, No. 8, is the safe- 
conduct given to the cardinal Chatillon by the duke of Anjou. It is dated Decem- 
ber 25, 1567. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 1,890, January 4, 1568. 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 341 

In his answer Charles IX declared that he would never agree 
to treat with the prince of Conde or any other subject as with an 
equal; he promised to pardon what had passed if the Protestants 
would lay down their arms within three days and retire to their 
houses and give up the places taken by them; that where certain 
gentlemen complained of having been prosecuted for exercising 
their religion in their houses, he was content that this should cease, 
provided that there were not more than fifty persons present exclu- 
sive of their families; that he intended to keep his forces in his 
hands and to dispose of and govern towns as he pleased; that the 
town of Lyons, being full of strangers, should not be allowed the 
exercise of religion; that all enrolment of men, associations, and 
synods, must cease; and finally, that the King would immediately 
dispatch his letters-patent to assure the prince and his company 
of their lives, goods, and the liberty of their consciences, if these 
conditions were complied with,' 

The truth is, the French government prepared for war with 
great reluctance. Phihp II's anxiety lest the queen would come 
to terms with her adversaries was a just one.^ The King's expenses 
amounted to nearly a million livres per month,^ and he had 
" to quiet such storms as daily arose in his camp amongst his nobil- 
ity, partly for rehgion and partly for ambition. ""^ Unless Spain 
came strongly to the relief of the Catholic cause in France, it was 
apparent that Conde could go almost wherever he pleased in the 
country, his force was so great. ^ Many of the King's soldiers 
were ill-minded to fight against their countrymen and many 

1 Ibid., No. 1,919, January 4, 1568. 

2 Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, II, 7, to Alva, 
January 22, 1568. 

3 C. S. P. Ven., No. 430, September 11, 1568; "A Florentine merchant greatly 
esteemed by these majesties and very useful to them in money matters called upon 
me today and gave me information concerning the king's inability from want of 
money to continue the war." Account of the sums of money paid to the troops, 
native and foreign, in the French king's service during the month of January 1568, 
amounting to 987,052 livres, or 116, 646^ 9^. sterling. The amounts reduced from 
French to English money by Cecil (C S. P. For., No. 1,978, January 1568). 

4 Ibid., No. 1,914, January 3, 1568. For an amusing instance see No. 1,670 
s Ibid., No. 2,024, February 12, 1568. 



342 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

deserted. The Swiss were wearied by travel and the inclemency 
of the season and there was much disease among them.'' The 
leaders wrangled for the command.^ There was mutiny and 
desertion in the ranks of the Scotch Guard, thirty of whom deserted 
to the prince, or rather to their old commander Montgomery. ^ 
All along the line of the King's forces there was opposition to the 
war. The chevalier Battres told Charles IX that many of the 
nobles were determined to hazard the King's displeasure rather 
than to stain their hands in their kinsmen's blood. ^ The marshal 
Cosse showed unwonted courage in his advocacy of moderation^ 
— a policy which he openly admitted and approved in the Council 
meeting (February lo). The germ of the Politique party is thus 
early discoverable.^ 

The duke of Anjou, who had been made commander-in-chief 
of the Catholic forces, ^ seeing the Protestant army considerably 
augmented and that they had crossed the Seine and controlled 
the passages over the Yonne and the Loire, sent most of his troops 
back to Paris, and scattered the rest along the banks of the Seine, 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 2,024, §1) February 24, 1568. 

2 " The King's army, finding what disorder the want of a good head has bred 
hitherto, are now content to accept any, be it not a marshal of France. It is now 
said that Mons. de Tavannes shall be M. d'Anjou's lieutenant " (ibid., No. 2,024, 
February 24, 1568). 

3 Some of them were captured by the King's forces in a skirmish near Chatillon 
between the duke of Nevers and Montgomery, and broken upon the wheel. The 
poor wretches under the torture compromised twenty-five others of the Guard, 
who on March 6 were also horribly put to death (ibid., No. 2,062, March 12, 1568). 
After the peace of Longjumeau the Scotch captains who had joined the prince of 
Conde were deprived of their commissions, although the action was contrary to the 
edict. In fact a reorganization of the whole maison du roi was made (ibid., No. 
2,135, April 18, No. 2,178, May 12, 1568. The vacancies were filled by Swiss 
instead (ibid., Nos. 1,981, 1,987, February i and 6, 1568), so that the famous 
Scotch Guard in the end became the King's Swiss Guard, which lasted down to 
the Revolution. 

^ Ibid., No. 1,981, February i, 1568. 

5 He was accused of having "pretermitted many fair occasions to have fought 
with the prince." 

6 Ibid., No. 2,024, §2) February 24, 1568. 

7 Claude Haton, I, 498 and note; C. S. P. For., No. 1,833, November 24, 
1567- 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 343 

to guard the road between Troyes and Paris. The Cathohc camp 
in Paris was estabhshed in the faubourg St. Marceau, where were 
lodged all the gendarmerie, both foot and horse, the artillery and 
the Swiss. But most of the cavalry was quartered in the villages, 
where the horses could get better grazing, to the detriment of the 
country round about, for the soldiers amused themselves by pil- 
lage, so that the better towns and chMeaux were compelled to 
fortify themselves as though against the enemy. ^ Strenuous efforts 
were made to provision Paris against a future siege, and to estab- 
lish magazines of provisions and ammunition in the towns of the 
Ile-de-France and Champagne. To this end the government 
bought up grain in the early spring of 1568, paying 50 livres per 
muid, or 10 sous, 5 deniers, per bichet.^ 

As the prince drew nearer to the city, the conduct of Paris 
became a matter of anxiety. Although bigotedly Catholic, the 
populace of the capital had no mind to experience another siege 
in the cause of religion, and the popular rage against the govern- 
ment, especially toward Catherine de Medici, became so intense 
that she dared not go abroad without being heavily guarded. The 
popular voice claimed that the queen mother nourished the quarrel 
and consumed the revenues of the King,^ a belief which the Guises 
cleverly fostered, if they were not the immediate authors of it.'^ 

^ Claude Haton, I, 524. 

2 These high prices were partly owing to the fact that speculators had bought 
up much of the grain, which rose in April to between 60 and 70 livres per muid. 
But in May, with the promise of a good harvest, the price dropped over one-half, 
from 15 sous tournois per bichet to 7 sous 6 deniers, to the great regret of the mer- 
chants who had counted upon a scarcity. On the other hand, the price of oats 
went higher, being sold at from 10 to 12 sous per bichet, or boisseau, for there was 
very little to be had after the passage of the troops; and because it ripened earlier, 
almost all of it was taken (Claude Haton, II, 523). 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 2,024, February 24, 1568. 

4 So ominous was the temper of the Parisians that even the minor gates of the 
Louvre were equipped with drawbridges {ibid., No. 2,040, §4, March i, 1568). 
Part of the indignation of Paris was due to the outrages of some reiters in the King's 
army from Luxembourg and Lorraine, who robbed priests and despoiled churches, 
notwithstanding that they were in Catholic service, so much so that "the^Parisians 
had rather had the prince of Conde's people should approach Paris as they" {ibid., 
Nos. 2,040, 2,041, March i, 1568). 



344 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

"The money of the kingdom today is in the hands of a single 
class," wrote the Venetian ambassador. "The clergy is ruined. 
Without counting the property of the church which has been 
mortgaged or sold with the authorization of the Pope, the church 
since 1561 has paid out 12,000,000 ecus for the King. This would 
be immaterial, for it is but a seventh of its annual revenue, if the 
church had not suffered so much from the civil war. The nobles 
are at their wits' ends and have not a sou on account of the war. 
The country folk have been so pillaged by the soldiery, whose 
license is frightful, that they are reduced to beggary. Only the 
bourgeoisie and the gens de robe tongue still have money. It is 
difficult for the King to obtain money without force. In addition 
to these troubles with his subjects the King has lost all his credit 
with foreign merchants and cannot raise an ecu outside the king- 
dom without giving collateral. But good may come out of this 
calamitous state, for the King and his subjects have come to such 
a dead stop that peace may result.'" 

Under these circumstances the crown earnestly renewed nego- 
tiations for peace. Even astrology was invoked by the supersti- 
tious Catherine and the signs of the zodiac were sagely said to 
point toward peace. For the queen, walking one day in her gar- 
den, discoursing of the peace, called unto her Messire Nonio, an 
Italian famed for his knowledge of astrology, of whom she asked 
what he found by the stars touching peace; to which he presently 
answered that the heavens did not promise it, nor was the earth 
yet ready to receive it; since the effect of the eclipse of the sun was 
then in its greatest force, and likewise the virtue of the conjunction 
of Saturn and Mars which was in Aries last year; but the wise 
man concluded with the oracular statement that the heavens did 
not constrain the inferior powers but only disposed them.^ 

On February 28 the King sent the marshal Montmorency, 
Morvilliers, the bishop of Limoges, and D'AUny, one of his secre- 
taries, to confer with representatives appointed by the prince of 
Conde, the cardinal Chatillon, the bishop of Valence, and Teligny 

' Rel. ven., II, 145. 

' C. S. P. For., No. 2,040, §3, March i, 1568. 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 345 

at Longjumeau, The prince made two notable conditions to the 
demands already outlined — that all the articles, agreements, and 
capitulations should be confirmed by all the Parlements of the 
realm, and that certain cautionary towns — he named Boulogne or 
La Rochelle' — be given to the Protestants as guarantees of the just 
purposes of the government. These two demands are of interest 
because they became invariable demands of the Huguenots in 
the future and foreshadowed important terms in the edict of 
Bergerac (1576) and that of Nantes of 1598. Those of the King 
replied that to make such demands impugned the King's honor, 
that the prince of Conde ought to trust the crown without requiring 
guaranties of assurance. As to the particular demands, Charles IX 
declared he did not think it meet to make the edict of 1563 per- 
petual^ and protested against the political and military organiza- 
tion of the Protestants, "insomuch as this liberty remaining, the 
King shall never be assured in his realm." On March 4 the com- 
missioners of the prince, tired of the parleying and vexed at the 
diversion the King tried to introduce by proposing a double alliance 
between the warring houses in the marriage of the duke of Guise 
with the prince's eldest daughter, and of D'Andelot's eldest son 
to the duke's sister, demanded express answer regarding church 
edifices; better observance of the edict by the King's officers; 
Huguenot schools, etc. To these Charles IX assented and the 
Huguenots waived the matter of confirmation by provincial Par- 
lements and the surrender of certain cautionary places for the time 
being. It remained to settle the question of the reiters' pay. 

1 Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, III, 136. La Rochelle was already the 
Huguenots' most important point and already large supplies of gunpowder and 
ammunition, chiefly from England, were being brought in there (cf. the captain 
of La Rochelle to Queen EHzabeth, C. S. P. For., No. 2,057, March 10, 1568). La 
Popeliniere, XII, 68-70, has a dissertation upon the history and institutions of 
La Rochelle. 

The peace of Longjumeau put an end to Montluc's plan for the seizure of 
La Rochelle, for which he had received the King's sanction in February. See the 
documents in F. Fr. 15,544, fol. 187; 15,548, foil. 163 ff. 

2 In the controversy between the count palatine and the King the former had 
asked that the word "perpetual"' be inserted in the edict, so that the edict might 
not be revoked at will (C. S. P. For., No. 1,968, 1567-68). 



346 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Five hundred thousand Hvres in the royal chest at Amboise were 
appropriated by the crown and the balance of the obligation was 
provided for by the cardinal of Bourbon and the dukes of Mont- 
morency and Longueville, who went security for it.' 

As finally concluded on March 26 the terms of Longjumeau 
were in reality a confirmation of the edict of March, 1563, which 
was not enlarged as the prince of Conde had at first demanded, 
except that the edict in its new form also applied to Provence.^ 
The terms of Longjumeau were suppressed for a short time and 
the army not dismissed, however, because it was thought perilous 
to disarm until the reiters had taken their leave. These maraud- 

1 The balance was to be paid in two instalments at Frankfurt (C. 5. P. For., No. 
2,135, April 18, 1568). All gifts and pensions were revoked until the debt was paid 
{ihid., No. 2,248, June 4, 1568). In Coll. Godefroy, CCLVII, Nos. 35, 41-43 
are a number of documents dealing with the pay of the reiters at this time. The 
whole sum required for the reiters was 1,440,000 livres, and the government at once 
set to work to collect it. The first collection seems to have been a sort of don 
patriotique made by a house-to-house visitation, showing how pressing was the 
necessity. The government tried to borrow the money which John Casimir had 
raised for the Protestants, but which was not used on account of the peace, and 
offered to pay 16 per cent, interest for it (C. S. P. For., March 28, 1568). On 
March 23 the King issued letters patent forbidding all notaries and others receiving 
any contract for annuities or mortgages before the sum of 1,400,000 livres tournois 
had been raised {ibid., No. 2,085). The duke of Alva was in a state of great 
anxiety for fear lest the reiters would come into the Netherlands and thought he 
discovered a plot to throw St. Omer into their hands {ibid., No. 2,230, April 25, 
1568). 

All the records abound with allusions to the rapacity of the reiters: "La 
nazione tedesca, nazione avara" {Rel. ven., II, 125 and notes). 

"Les reitres trouvaient beaucoup meilleur I'argent qu'on leur promettait 
d'Angleterre que les cidres de Normandie." — La Noue. 

" L'importunita dei Tedeschi che mai cessavano de domandare donazioni 
o paghe." — Davila, I, 137. 

"Us consommeraient un gouffre d'argent — Facheux, avares, importuns." — 
Brantome, III, 196, 310. 

2 But restricted as they were, the terms yet mightily offended the Guises, 
especially the cardinal of Lorraine who "did marvellously storm that the king would 
condescend to any peace with his subjects, whereat the king said he would agree 
thereto,, ' maugre luy.' " On the entire negotiations see C. S. P. For., No. 2,025, 
Feb. 24; Nos. 2,040-41, March 1-4; No. 2,054, March 9; Nos. 2,057, 2,058, March 
lo-ii; No. 2,092, March 27, 1568). The final draft was completed on March 23; 
the edict was signed by Charles IX on March 26. It was published at Paris on the 
next day {ibid., Nos. 2,092-93). 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 347 

ers, who followed war as a trade and with whom faith and piety 
were not virtues, had not ceased their depredations during the 
course of the negotiations. The people "being everywhere envir- 
oned both with their own or foreign enemies, dared not approach 
town or village, all being replenished with reiters or those who 
entreated them as ill, whereby they miserably died in the fields."^ 

The publication of the edict encountered bitter opposition 
throughout the country.^ At Toulouse the King's messenger 
who brought the royal order for its registration by the Parlement 
was actually tried, condemned, and executed for the "offense," 
so inflamed was the public mind.^ At Rouen a furious multitude 
assailed the magistrates and mobbed the dwellings of those of 
Huguenot inclination. The same thing happened at Bourges. 
At Orleans the soldiers murdered several at the gates of the city, 
with impunity. In Languedoc there were commotions and 
slaughters. 4 

The strife in the south of France, in Provence, Languedoc, 
and Guyenne, had never entirely ceased since the inception 
of the first civil war. The King's tour of the provinces had over- 
awed the combatants to a certain extent and in Languedoc Dam- 
ville, who had succeeded his father on April 28, 1563,5 managed 
to keep things with a pretty "even hand, enforcing the edict of 
Amboise throughout his jurisdiction.^ But the hostility of Mont- 
luc, whose government of Guyenne adjoined Languedoc, toward 
Damville, was a serious bar to pacification, for Montluc not only 
sought to diminish Damville's authority by complaining to the 

1 Ihid., No. 2,058, March 11, 1568. Granvella expressed fear of universal 
famine in France, followed by the plague (Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II, 
II, 17). 

2 The preachers and the doctors in Paris in their sermons decried the King and 
his Council (Claude Haton, II, 527 and note; cf. ibid., 531; Rel. ven., II, 121). 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 2,273, June 17, 1568; Hist, du Languedoc, V, 482 ff.; 
Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, V, 18, 88, 142, 156; D'Aubigne, Book IV, 
chaps, xii-xiv. 

aC. S. p. For., Nos. 2,115, 2,135, April 8-10, 1568. 

5 Hist, du Languedoc, V, 441. 

6 For details see ibid., 443-64. 



348 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

King of him, but also secretly connived with the doings of ultra- 
Catholic partisans in Toulouse and elsewhere.^ 

So intense was the hatred in the south of France between the 
Catholics and the Huguenots that there was scarce any intermission 
of hostilities at all after the peace of Longjumeau, especially in 
Provence. The duke of Joyeuse, who commanded the royal 
forces here, was a man after Montluc's own heart. Early in 1568 
he had passed up the Rhone for the purpose of aiding the counts 
of Tende and Suze. He had with him 2,000 foot and from five 
to six hundred horse, and easily overcame the little fortresses until 
he reached Pont St. Esprit in February, Failing to take this, the 
army was divided. Joyeuse crossed the Rhone at Avignon on 
March 7, took Loudun, Orsenne, and Tresques, then, retracing 
his steps, he again joined the count of Tende and renewed the 
siege of Pont St. Esprit. The Protestants under the command of 
Montbrun gave battle in the plains of Montfran near Aramon, 
and were badly defeated May 24, 1568. When peace was made 
Joyeuse returned to Avignon. Most of the towns of lower Langue- 
doc were carefully garrisoned by him, but Montauban, Castres, 
and Montpellier resisted. Everywhere he exacted disarmament 
and the oath of fidelity.^ 

1 Montluc even ascribed the ravages of the plague to Damville in order to 
create popular prejudice against him! {Hist, du Languedoc, V, 449). His own 
words are: "Pour se montrer au peuple, qui avoit una marvelleuse envie de le 
voir, n'y pouvant arreter a cause de la grande peste qui y est." (Cf. his letters to 
Damville, December 31, 1567, and August 26, 1569, in Commentaires et lettres de 
Montluc, V, 103 and 159.) Montluc was doubly incensed at this moment because 
the peace of Longjumeau canceled orders which he had received in February to 
attempt to take La Rochelle by sea {ibid., VII, 148 ff.; V, 107 note, 109 note, 184 
note). 

2 Bulletin de la Soc. acad. du Var., 1876. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE THIRD CIVIL WAR (1568). NEW CATHOLIC LEAGUE. 
THE BATTLE OF JARNAC 

The peace of Longjumeau, more than any treaty of the civil 
wars, was a tentative settlement, an armistice merely. It was 
chiefly compelled by the lack of funds of both parties and from its 
signature was more openly opposed and protested against than 
any other of the treaties. Suspense over the probability of a third 
and worse war prevailed from the beginning. For while many 
on each side returned to their homes, there were many others 
who had no place to which to retire, for whom vagabond life 
had attractions and who preferred war to peace and plundering 
to honest labor. ^ Both sides were too suspicious and too fearful 
to lay down their arms. So many of the Huguenot captains kept 
their troops in the fields that the King wrote to no less than 212 
places charging the governors thereof to scatter these bands. 
Many known to have been in arms hid them in secret places and 
were, in consequence, not permitted to return to their native places 
until such arms were given up. The Catholic resentment seems 
to have been strongest in Paris^ and Burgundy, though in the 
former the provost of the merchants made the singularly sane plea 
to the King to have an especial regard for justice lest its denial 
might stir the Protestants to new strife. In general, though, 
wherever the King's garrisons were stationed there was trouble. 

It was not long before the Guise opposition organized. Failing 
of their hold upon Charles IX, the Guises directed their efforts 
upon his brother, Henry, duke of Anjou, whose Catholic senti- 

1 Claude Haton, II, 525. He repeats at different times the current play upon 
words which designated these free-booting nobles as "gens-pille-hommes" (gentil- 
hommes). In general, in his estimation, the nobility had much degenerated. 
See Vol. I, Introd., p. Ixii. 

2 Volunteer bands of searchers visited Huguenot houses, to inquire into their 
faith (C 5. P. For., No. 2,191, May 17, 1568). At the court, certain of the nobles 
promised Charles to assure for all members of their retinue to be good Catholics 
{ibid., Nos. 2,191, 2,235, 2,236, 2,243, 2,248, May 17 to June 4, 1568). 

349 



35° THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

ments' were less impeachable than those of Charles and who 
began to "show some tokens of an ambitious heart," was a sworn 
Catholic, and showed great offense at his royal brother's action 
in "very courteously" entertaining the cardinal Chatillon, the 
count Rochefoucauld, and Brocarde, the Protestant governor of 
Orleans.^ On the night of March 29 a secret conference was 
held at the Louvre of the leaders among the Guise party, in which 
it was proposed that a pacific attitude be pretended until the dis- 
arming of the prince of Conde's forces and the withdrawal of the 
reiters had taken place, and then suddenly to seize Orleans, Sois- 
sons, Auxerre, and La Rochelle — the Huguenot strongholds — foi* 
which duty Lansac, Martigues, Chavigny, and Brissac were to 
be appointed, reinforce the garrison of Paris, and send the ferocious 
Montluc into Gascony to subjugate the strongest Protestant prov- 
inces, seize the sea-ports, and drive a Cathohc wedge in between 
Poitou and the territories of the queen of Navarre, who already 
had taken the precaution to strengthen her defenses. By some 
means, perhaps through the marshal Cosse, who was a Politique 
at heart, the cardinal Chatillon learned of the plot the very next 
day, and straightway informed the marshal Montmorency, another 
moderate, of it. At the same time the plan was discovered from 
another source to the prince of Conde. When Charles IX was 
taxed with information of it, he swore that the whole thing was 
done without his knowledge, accused the cardinal of Lorraine of 
treasonable practice, and calling for pen and ink wrote to Conde 
promising "good and sincere" observation of all that had been 
agreed upon at Longjumeau.^ 

It will be observed how completely this plan of the Guises for 
the subjugation of Guyenne and Gascony is in alignment with 
the views of Montluc which he had expressed to Philip II. ^ Hitherto 

1 "D'Anjou has marvellously stomached these dealings, and has kept his 
chamber, having uttered most despiteful words against them of the religion, saying 
that he hoped to march upon their bellies" (C. S. P. For., No. 2,177, May 12, 1568). 

2 Ibid., No. 2,115, §1. April 8, 1568. 

3 See the revelations of Norris to Cecil in ibid., No. 2,100, March 30, 1568. 
As earnest of the royal purpose the marshal Montmorency set at once about 
disarming the people of Paris. 

4 Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, V, 22, 23. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 351 

the King of Spain had been sustaining two separate lines of secret 
correspondence, one with Montluc direct; the other with the 
cardinal of Lorraine through the duke of Alva. These two Hnes 
now are fused into a larger whole, at least so far as the Spanish 
king is concerned.' Montluc is the mihtary, the cardinal of 
Lorraine the diplomatic, agent of Philip's purposes. 

The development of the Holy League has now advanced another 
stage in its evolution. The old warrior had not discontinued his 
secret relations with Spain, in spite of his warm denial of the fact 
to the queen mother, who taxed him with it,^ but through Bardaxi 
still kept in communication with Philip II. We find him writing 
twice to the King in February 1567 and Philip responding in terms 
of encouragement in the following month. ^ Guyenne was peculiarly 
vulnerable to such an attack as was now contemplated, and Mont- 
luc was certainly the best captain to execute it. The army of the 
Huguenots there was in a bad state. ■* 

The instrument was already forged to Philip II's hand in the 
local Catholic leagues in France. His interest in these was one of 
the silent activities at Bayonne. The instructions to the duke of 
Alva and to Bardaxi were almost identical. " As the queen mother 
lacks either fixity of ideas or honesty of purpose"— the words 
are those of the proces-verbal framed in the Spanish council-cham- 
ber, it is necessary to encourage the practices of Montluc and the 
Catholics. "5 It must have been a source of dehght to the Spanish 
king to observe the rapid increase of these associations. There 
are two changes to be noticed in these provincial leagues: their 
increasingly popular character, and their tendency to fuse together. 
Hitherto they had been local in their operations. Now a process 
of federation is to be observed by which the provincial leagues 
are gradually welded into one whole — in a word the mighty Sainte 

I Probably neither the cardinal nor Montluc knew that the other had been 
in secret correspondence with Philip II. Knowing Philip's methods, it is likely 
that he kept them in ignorance of it. This was his way (cf. Forneron, I, 327). 

z Ruble, Commentaires et letires de Montluc, IV, 328, 329, letter of March 5, 
1564. 

3 Ihid., V, 76, 77 and notes. 4 Ihid., V, 145. 

s Cited by Forneron, Histoire de Philippe II, 1, 327. 



352 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Ligue of 1576 potentially exists now.^ The federative tendency 
of these associations was a natural result of their increase in num- 
ber and membership. It was not a haphazard development at 
all. Design is evident throughout.^ 

The renewal of civil war in 1567 had given a great impulse to 
this spirit of association. ^ Nowhere was it more pronounced than 
in Burgundy. Tavannes, who was governor of Burgundy, in 
the year 1567 (July 18), formed a league under the name of the 
Confrerie du St. Esprit. Churchmen, the nobility of Burgundy, 
and wealthy bourgeois who wished to preserve the Catholic rehgion 
were united together in the service of the King. The version of 
its origin in the Memoires de Tavannes is so interesting that I 
venture to quote it: 

Seeing so much discontent and so many threatening enterprises among 
the Huguenots, the queen, for safety's sake, in the beginning of the year 1567 
caused a levy of 9,000 Swiss [the actual number was 6,000 to be made under 
pretext that they were to be for the service of the duke of Alva in the Flemish 
War. The prevailing unrest and the rumors of insurrection gave the sieur de 
Tavannes, who penetrated the designs of the queen and the purpose of the 
Huguenots, the thought that a prudent man might also take precautions of 
his own. He reasoned that the Huguenots did not have more zeal for their 
cause than the Catholics for the old religion, and that those who would pre- 
serve it would give their lives and employ their last sou to succor the King; in 
a word, oppose league to league. He therefore organized the Confrerie du 
St. Esprit, which in reality was a league of the ecclesiastics and the nobility of 
Burgundy, with rich men from the towns, who voluntarily swore to serve in the 

I The ordinance of Moulins specifically alluded to the growing popular nature 
of these confraternities: "Qu'on abolisse entierement les confreries etablies sous 
pretexte de religion parmi le petit peuple, les festins, les repas, les batons (batons 
de Confrerie, qui servent a porter aux confreries I'lmage de quelque saint, ou la 
representation de quelque mystere) et autres choses semblables, qui donnent lieu 
a la superstition, aux troubles, a la debauche, aux querelles, et aux monopoles" 
(De Thou, V, Book XXXIX, p. 183, in the article prohibiting them). But it was 
as impossible then as now to enforce a law in the face of a public opinion which did 
not sympathize with the provision. Public opinion not merely favored their forma- 
tion; the very officers of the crown promoted their organization. La Popeliniere, 
XI, 12, makes this point. 

2"Discorso sopra gli umori di Francia di M"". Nazaret, 1570," Barberini 
Library 3,269, fol. 63. See Appendix XIII. 

3 D'Aubigne, III, 2. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 353 

interest of the Catholic religion against the Huguenots, sacrificing both person 
and property for the sake of the King. Without using coercion he gave orders 
for the enrolment of men-at-arms and the collection of money, created warders, 
spies, and messengers, in imitation of the Huguenots, in order to discover 
their machinations. The oath subscribed to justified this design. Each par- 
ish of Dijon paid its men for three months, and each town contributed 200 
horse and 250 footmen. Burgundy could furnish 1,500 horse and 400 men on 
foot, paid for three months of the year. The sieur de Tavannes summoned 
an assembly in the Maison du Roi, .... and there caused the oath to be 
read. 

The oath began : 

We swear by the most holy and incomprehensible name of God, the Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit, in whose name we have been baptized, and we promise 
on our honor and the peril of our lives that, henceforth, at all times, through 
the chiefs and those who shall be named by the King under these articles, we 
will make known any enterprise that may work contrary to our said law and 
faith of which we have made profession in our baptism, and which we have 
maintained by the grace of God to the present, and also to make known every 
enterprise, which may clothe itself in hatred of the maintenance of the said 
faith, against the said royal Majesty, madame his mother, and messieurs his 
brothers, who rule over us by divine permission. 

And further on in the oath: 

We swear and promise in the present writing to render all friendship and 
fraternity the one to the other, to aid each other reciprocally against all phases 
of the opposite party, if they shall undertake any enterprise against any one of 
the signatories to the cause of this party; and for the sake of said aid we promise 
respectively, the one and the other, to employ all our persons, our credit, and our 
favors without sparing anything. And we promise to observe all the articles 
above sworn to without regard to friends, parents, or any relationship which 
we may have with those who undertake the contrary.^ 

In the following year, on April 2, 1568, "La Fraternite des 
Catholiques de Chalons-sur-Saone" emerged. 

A limitation de la majeste du Roy nostre sire [so runs the instrument], 
et soubs sa protection et bon plaisir .... nous avons faict entre nous et 
pour tous autres Catholiques qui adjoindre se vouldront une fraternite qui 
s'appellera Confrairie et Soci^te des Catholiques. 

I Memoires de Tavannes, ed. Michaud and Poujoulat, series I, VIII, 288, 
289; Pasquier, Book IV, letter 23; Collection Tremont, Nos. 1,367, 1,382; of. La 
Popeliniere, XI, 7-12; Pingaud, Les Saulx-Tavannes, p. 61. 



354 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

And it is added — sign of omen — 

Et au cas qu'il advint que Dieu ne veuille que les persones de sa majeste 
et de messieurs ses freres .... fussent oppresses de sorte que ne sceussions 
avoir advertissement de leurs volontez, promettons rendre toute obeissance 
au general chef qui sera esleu.' 

Six weeks later, on May i8, 1568, through the activity of Ta- 
vannes, a similar association was formed in Berry and was confirmed 
at Bourges by the archbishop, Jacques le Roy.^ A month later 
La Ligue Chretienne et Roy ale, "for the defense of the Catholic 
church in France and for maintaining the royal authority in the 
House of Valois," to which was appended the significant proviso, 
"so long as it shall govern in the Catholic and Apostolic religion" 
appeared in Champagne under the auspices of Henry of Guise, 
then eighteen years of age and governor of the province. The 
nobility, the bishop, and the clergy, in a meeting at Troyes, con- 
cluded, signed, and took an oath to this league on June 25.^ Exactly 
a month later, on July 25, the Beauvaisis followed the lead of 
Burgundy, Berry, and Champagne, and formed an "Association 
Catholique" for the same purpose. ^ The movement also spread 
west of the Seine, into Maine and Anjou, where the clergy, the 
nobihty, and the third estate, on July 11, 1568, established an 
association whose members swore "de vivre et mourir en la religion 
catholique et de nous secourir les uns et les autres contre les rebelles 
et heretiques sectaires de la nouvelle religion." Forty persons 
signed the oath.^ 

In Toulouse, the former league was revived in September, 
1568, with new energy under the patronage of the cardinal of 
Armagnac and actual leadership of a secular priest who preached 

1 State Papers, Foreign, Elizabeth, XCVII, No. i 711. A printed pamphlet. 
See Appendix XIV. 

2 Raynal, Histoire du Berry, IV, 79-83. The text of the act is found in Thau- 
vessiere's Histoire du Berry, 189. 

3 The text is given in Claude Haton, II, 1152. Cf. Vicomte de Meaux, Luttes 
religieuses en France, 177, 178; Capefigue, La rejorme et la ligue, 360. 

4 Feret, Clermont-en-Beauvaisis pendant les troubles de la ligue, Clermont, 

1853- 

5 State Papers, Foreign, Elizabeth, C, No. 1,863. See Appendix XV. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 355 

war upon the Protestants with a crusader's zeal. On September 
12 the latter gathered those desirous of reviving the association 
in the cathedral of St. Etienne where a solemn oath was taken by 
all, who promised to devote life and property to the support of the 
catholic religion. The league thus formed was officially entitled 
La Croisade, with the motto : " Eamus nos, moriamur cum Christo." 
All its members wore a white cross.' Even some of the smaller 
towns followed the example of the provinces and large cities. At 
Anduze in Lower Languedoc at this same time the churches formed 
a Catholic union. ^ The movement actually spread into Lower 
Navarre where in the same month, September, the sieur de Luxe 
and some others, at the instigation of the cardinal of Lorraine, 
perhaps, formed a league at St. Palais for the purpose of driving 
out the Calvinist preachers in St. Palais. They seized La Rive, 
the pastor at St. Palais, Tarde, pastor at Ostabanes, both of whom 
were imprisoned in the house of De Luxe. But the prompt con- 
duct of Jeanne d'Albret and the prince of Navarre, who won his 
spurs in the siege of Garris, speedily crushed this association.^ 

In view of this spontaneous organization of the Catholics every- 
where, it was inevitable that the peace of Longjumeau would be 
of short duration, even if there had been no special circumstances 
to bring it to an end.'* The Guises, after the discovery of their 

1 Hist, du Languedoc, XI, 509-10 and XII; Preuves, No. 300, p. cxiii; Cabinet 
historique, II, 217. This league was much more formal in its organization than 
any of the others. In addition to securing the authorization of the Parlement, the 
leaders had secured the sanction of Pius V in the March preceding. The bull was 
granted March 15. 

2 Cabinet historique, II, 219. 

3 Bordenave, Hist, de Beam et de Navarre, 139-45. I venture to suggest 
the cardinal of Lorraine as a possible instigator, from Bordenave's words: "quel- 
ques autres .... sollicitez par quelques uns des ^nwci^awrx; Jm cowjei/ de France." 
Philip II threw new troops into Spanish Navarre at this time, either in consequence 
of Jeanne d'Albret's energetic action or to co-operate with the league, if it were 
successful. Fourquevaux ascertained the fact, but was in the dark as to the reason 
for it {Pepeches de Fourquevaux, II, 25, November, 1568). 

4 A letter of Coligny, July 29, 1568, shows that the Huguenot leader was aware 
of the formation of these provincial leagues. After complaining of the assassination 
of one of D'Andelot's lieutenants, he protests against the general violence: "Ce 
que faict croire que ce sont des fruictz et offices des confraires du Saint-Esprit et 



356 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

secret conference of March 29, for the time being sought to dis- 
semble their feeHngs and purposes, and not to offend the King's 
anger. When it was observed in the royal presence that great 
inconvenience was likely to arise in France for want of obedience 
to the edict, the cardinal of Lorraine, hearing the remark, replied 
" Sur ma conscience, il n'y a rien plus necessaire." 

The feud between the Guises and Montmorencys seemed likely 
to involve the state in war before very long.^ The quarrel 
between the two houses was the more intense at this time 
owing to the fact that the duke of Anjou's retention of the lieu- 
tenantship, in which office the Guises supported and maintained 
him for their own purposes, gave offense to the marshals, Mont- 
morency, Damville, and Vieilleville; the more so because they 
were all moderate Catholics and were dissatisfied with the duke's 
bigoted Catholic leanings and affeliation with the Guises; they 
argued that "it had not been seen heretofore, that the King should 
have a lieutenant," that the continuance of such a title, especially 
in time of peace, was a prejudice to their station,^ adding signifi- 

sainctes ligues qu'ils appellent; mais si on voit que infiniz meurtres et massacres 
qui se sont faictz avec une effrenee licence en tous les endroictz de ce royaume 
depuys la paciffication il n'en ayt este faict aucune justice ou chastiment, quelque 
declaration que Vostre Majeste ayt faicte de sa volonte et intention, je n'en espere 
pas davantage de cestuy-cy, estant bien facile a cognoistre que ce sont choses pro- 
jectees et deliberees avec les gouverneurs des provinces, et que cela ne se faict 
poinct sans adveu ou pour le moins sans un tacite consentement." — Correspondance 
de Catherine de Medicis, III, 163, note. 

1 Montmorency continually threw his influence in favor of peace and moder- 
ation, slapping the Guises, however, in his utterances. "The Duke Montmorency 
said there was nothing more necessary for the maintenance of the king's estate 
than the sincere observance of the edict of pacification, and such as labour to the 
contrary are neither friends to the king nor his crown; and for his own part if the 
king did not foresee in time with due execution of justice this growing mischief, he 
was resolved with his leave to depart the court with his friends and allies, and so 
to withdraw himself from such as under the pretext of maintenance of their religion, 
continually nourished this division, and in the end put out the glory and renown of 
the French empire." — C. S. P. For., No. 2,177, §i> May 12, 1568. 

On June 17 Norris wrote to Cecil: "Montmorency has come to the court. 
The process between him and the duke of Guise for the county of Dammartin will 
in the end break into open enmity." — Ibid., No. 2,273. 

2 "The four marshals agree all in one against the Cardinal." — Ibid., No. 2,235, 
May 31, 1568. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 357 

cantly that they "being marshals knew what appertained to their 
charges." The strife between the factions soon became so severe 
as to dismay some, especially the cardinal of Bourbon, who threat- 
ened "that in case the King would take no better order than he 
had done, he would depart the court and give the world to under- 
stand how he had at heart the honour of his house and the welfare 
of his friends." The chancellor L'Hopital, having vainly endeav- 
ored to soften the strife, asked leave to be discharged of his office 
— an event which the cardinal of Lorraine" would have hailed 
with delight. As it was, the Guises used Anjou to abuse the posi- 
tion of the chancellor. ' 

The continued presence of the reiters and the Swiss also added 
to the anxiety of those who were peaceably inclined, for "there 
was not a town or a village in the Ile-de-France that was not fur- 
nished with soldiers," the country indeed teeming so much with 
them that traveling now was more perilous even than during the 
wars.^ The 6,000 Swiss still remained within four leagues of 
Paris at the last of May. The reiters of the prince stopped in 
Burgundy and plundered the country; while the prince of Conde 
vainly demanded that they be paid at once.^ At Dijon five of them 
were slain by the desperate populace and a massacre of thirteen 
of the inhabitants followed.-* Many thought that the war would 
be renewed the moment the harvest was gathered.^ 

Late in May the duke of Montmorency left Paris for Chantilly, 
while his brother Damville stayed in the capital. The action of 

1 "All things are ruled now by M. d' Anjou, who though young is a most 
earnest and cruel enemy against the favourers of religion, and has his privy coun- 
sellors, the cardinal of Lorraine being the chiefest, and further has his chancellor, 
who seals all such things as the good old chancellor of the King refuses to seal; 
who neither for love nor dread would seal anything against the statutes of the 
realm." — Ihid., No. 2,178, May 12, 1568. On the whole affair, seeibid., No. 2,177, 
§2, May 12, 1568. 

2 Ibid., No. 2,115, §2, April 8; No. 2,177, §3, May 12, 1568. 

3 Due d'Aumale, Histoire des princes de Conde, II, App. I. 
4C S. P. For., No. 2,235, May 31, 1568. 

s "The garrisons in the Ile-de-France are thought to attend no other thing 
but till the corn be off the ground to begin where they left off." — Ibid., No. 2,178, 
May 12; 1568. 



358 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

each was significant. At Chantilly the cardinal Chatillon and 
other Protestant nobles deliberated, while in Paris Damville's 
house was frequented by those hostile to the cardinal of Lorraine's 
authority, notably the four marshals, all of whom inveighed against 
him and were popularly believed to be forming a new opposition 
to him.^ The Huguenot leaders, Conde, Coligny, D'Andelot, 
all lay in various castles throughout the Ile-de-France, with cap- 
tains, soldiers, and gentlemen around them, and so distributed 
that no river separated them one from the other, while one ford 
between Paris and Rouen was kept open to enable those of the 
religion in Picardy to keep in touch with the prince.^ So skilfully 
was the distribution made that the leaders could have been able 
to unite within a day and a half if necessary.^ 

The strain upon Charles IX soon began to tell. He was heard 
to say that he would rather lose his crown outright than live in 
continual fear, and as the feud became intenser, the King yielded 
and finally showed his hand by displacing the marshal Montmor- 
ency as governor of Paris, though he dared not go quite so far as 
to put Henri d'Anjou in his room, but chose his youngest brother, 
the duke of Alenfon.^ 

We discover at this time the germ of the Politique party. ^ If 
the Guises had been aware of the astonishing diplomatic stroke 
Montmorency had conceived in his retreat at Chantilly and 

1 C. S. P. For., Nos. 2,235, 2,243, 2,248, May 31, June 2-4, 1568. 

2 As to localities see Due d'Aumale, Histoire des princes de Conde, II, 284. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 2,296, June 22, 1568. They feared a plot to capture them 
by trickery, as Egmont and Hoorne had been trapped in Flanders. According 
to report, Lavallette was to have seized the prince, Chavigny the admiral, and 
Tavannes D'Andelot. The warning was probably given by some secretary whom 
Coligny had corrupted, for shortly after this time several secretaries to the Catholic 
leaders were dismissed {ibid., No. 2,256, June 7, 1J68; cf. D'Aumale, Histoire des 
princes de Conde, II, 12, n. 2, and p. 287). Coligny also bribed the secretary of Don . 
Francesco de Alava, Spanish ambassador in France (see C. S. P. For., No. 1,230, 
May 24, 1568 and Introd., p. xxvi). 

. 4 Ibid., Nos. 2,256, 2,304, 2,323, June 7, 28, July 5, 1568. For an instance of 
the feeling between the prince and the cardinal see Sir Henry Norris to the queen, 
ibid., No. 2,248, June i, 1568 and Due d'Aumale, Histoire des princes de Conde, 
II, 12 and n. i. 

5 This was the time the word first appeared (D'Aumale, II, 12, note 3). 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 359 

which he had communicated to the Huguenot leaders, they might 
not have pressed the case of Anjou so insistently. This scheme 
was to separate the King's brother from his attachment to the 
Guises and at the same time enlist English aid in support of reli- 
gious toleration in France — the aim of the PoHtique party — by 
nothing less than bringing about the marriage of the Valois 
prince with Queen Elizabeth. At the same time Montmorency, 
by gaining the favor of the duke, would work the cardinal out of 
power. To this end the duke approached the English envoy in 
France.' 

Day by day the animosity of the parties grew. In a certain 
sense the peril of the times was greater than during a state of war. 
Daily murder by dagger and by drowning, and violation of prop- 
erty took place throughout France, to such an extent that it was 
said more had been murdered since the publication of the peace 
than were in the war which it was supposed to have concluded.^ 
But although the animosity of the parties was strong enough to 
incite them to war, the renewal of hostilities was yet very 
dependent upon the fluctuation of events in the Netherlands, ^ 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 2,295, Norris to Cecil, June 23, 1568. On the whole 
negotiation see Robinson, "Queen Elizabeth and the Valois Princes," Eng. Hist. 
Rev., II, 40; Hume, Courtships of Queen Elizabeth, 114-49. Hume, however, 
is in error, p. 115, in believing that the negotiation arose ajter the peace of St. 
Germain in 1570. The intercourse must have been kept very much in the dark, 
judging from the obscure allusions in the following: Sir Henry Norris to the earl of 
Leicester, C. S. P. For., No. 2,241, August 20, 1568 — Marshal Montmorency is 
very desirous to have answer to the letter which he wrote to Leicester; the queen 
to the duchess of Montmorency, ibid.. No. 2,472, August 27, 1568 — Thanks her 
f or her courteous and honorable entertainment in her house, and near her person 
of the daughter of her chamberlain. Lord Edward Howard. Walsingham warned 
his government at this time against spies of the cardinal of Lorraine in London. 
See Appendix XVI. 

2 "More have been murdered since the publishing of the peace than were all 
these last troubles. Daily murders are committed without any punishment to the 
offenders, others violently taken out of their houses in the night and led to the 
river being without remorse drowned." — C. 5. P. For., Nos. 2,383, 2,339, 2,407, 
July 31-August 7, 1568. 

3 The proceedings here on both sides are measured by the success in Flanders 
{ibid.. No. 2,273, June 17, 1568; Archives de la maison d'Orange-Nassau, 
II, 47; Depeches de Fourquevaux, II, 24). 



360 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

and at this moment the balance there was inchned in Spain's 
favor. ^ 

William of Orange, while not in alliance with the French, 
nevertheless sought to avail himself of the services of the 4,000 
reiters which John Casimir had raised for the French Protestants, 
whose use was no longer required by the Huguenots after the 
peace of Longjumeau. A horror of Spanish cruelty was beginning 
to pervade Germany and brought him sympathy and support.^ 
Calvinist Europe built high hopes upon this assistance for the 
Dutch. 3 But Orange was straitened for money* and it was not 
until the middle of August that he was ready to return to give Alva 
battle with an army of 6,000 horsemen and four regiments of foot, 
besides the Lorrainers and Gascons who were all gunners. Ac- 
cording to the plan of the prince, three armies were to enter the 
Netherlands at once, the French under a Huguenot leader named 
Cocqueville, through Artois; the Count of Hoogstraeten between 
the Rhine and the Meuse, and Louis of Nassau through Groningen. 

But the whole plan failed. Cocqueville raised seven or eight 
hundred men with the intention of provoking Artois to revolt. ^ 
Failing to take Doulens by surprise, Cocqueville pillaged the 
abbey-town of Dammartin. The duke of Alva energetically 
protested to Charles IX against this violation of the Spanish prov- 
inces by French subjects, and the marshal Cosse was sent into 
Picardy. The foreigners in Cocqueville's band were summarily 
beheaded at St. Valery, the leader himself was sent to Abbeville 
for trial for treason and executed, and the whole expedition came 
to naught.^ The enforced delay of the prince of Orange, united 

1 In February, 1568 the wholesale condemnation of the people of the Low 
Countries had been pronounced by the inquisition and confirmed by the Philip II, 
(Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 171). 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 2,432, August 17, 1568, Mundt to Cecil from Strasburg. 

3 Languet, Epist. seer., I, 60; Epist. ad Camer., 79 and 84. 

4Languet Epist. seer., I, 64; Archives de la maison d^ Orange-Nassau, III, 208. 

s Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau III, 207; Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, 
No. 7, Marshal Cosse to the King, June 20, 1568. 

6 See Haag, La France protestante, art., "Cocqueville." The admiral Coligny 
disavowed any complicity in the enterprise. For the fate of the other columns see 
Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 212, 220, 227. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 361 

with this repulse, was fatal to the Netherland project. On July 
21, 1568, Louis of Nassau was defeated at Jemmingen by Alva, 
Spanish tyranny was fixed more firmly in the Low Countries, and 
Egmont and Hoorne were shortly afterward sent to the scaffold.^ 

Everything was now out of joint. The success of the Dutch would 
have emboldened their French coreligionists to renew the struggle 
with some hope of success.^ But the Catholic victory in the Low 
Countries hardened the resolution of the French government. 
Hitherto chiefly the lesser nobility of France had been success- 
fully coerced by the French crown. Now the cardinal of Lorraine 
intended to do the like with the higher nobles, compelling them 
either to abandon their religious and political contentions or to 
take up arms. 3 At the same time military preparations began to 
be made which could not but be viewed with alarm by the Hugue- 
nots. The crown was stronger in cavalry, in infantry, in artillery, 
and in munitions. The country as a whole was with the King, 
and the chief cities were in his hands. "The great cities," said 
Coligny mournfully, "are the tombs of our armies."'^ 

So carefully were the preparations made that the King remained 
armed while the Huguenots were scattered and unarmed,^ saving 

1 Ibid., 239, 255. The prince of Orange anticipated the disaster of 
Jemmingen, for he disapproved of the rash policy of his brother. See a letter on 
this head written by him to Louis of Nassau in July, 1568 (Archives de la maison 
d' Orange-Nassau, III, 257, and the latter's reply, July 17, ibid., Ill, 264, 265). 
Alva had been so certain of Spanish victory that in advance of it he offered 
Charles IX the use of Spanish troops (C. 5. P. For., No. 2,379 §2) July 29, 1568). 

2 "They (Huguenots) attend the success of the war in Flanders." — Ibid. 

3 In September, 1568, a royal 'edict was promulgated forbidding the public 
profession of any but the Catholic religion, and revoking all former edicts. Text 
in Recueil de Fontanon, IV, 294. Montluc claims that he was the author of the 
idea and that he sent a rough draft of such an edict to Charles IX (De Ruble, 
Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, V, 153, 154). In intimation of this ^..olicy, in 
August an oath of allegiance and obedience had been exacted by Charles IX of all 
the Huguenot leaders (C. 5. P. For., No. 2,419, August 9, 1568; cf. No. 2,407, 
August 7 and Due d'Aumale, Hist, des princes de Conde, II, 9). 

4 Rel. ven., II, 123. 

5 Claude Haton, II, 532; Coll. des autographes de M. de L- de Nancy (Paris, 

1855), No. 477; Henry, duke of Anjou to Matignon, King's lieutenant in Normandy, 
October 8, 1568, recommending him to distribute the gendarmerie in places most 
suitable to protect the country. 



362 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

large numbers of individual nobles who yet stood upon their guard. 
In northern and central France, La Rochelle excepted, the govern- 
ment controlled all the towns. In Provence and Languedoc, how- 
ever, many of the towns were governed by the Protestants.' In 
order to prevent the communication of intelligence between the 
various parts of France under Protestant control, Charles IX even 
had refused to permit Conde to levy money upon the Huguenots 
for payment of the reiters, notwithstanding the governments' own 
poverty, although the prince cunningly suggested such an action.^ 
The outlook was dark indeed. The Huguenots nowhere save in 
the south seemed strong enough to take the field, and it seemed 
hopeless for them to expect to join with their coreligionists of the 
north owing to the vigilance of Montluc in Languedoc and Tavannes 
in Burgundy and to the fact that the whole course of the Loire was 
patrolled by forces of the government. Moreover, the general 
contribution being stopped, both resources and communication 
were at an end; the gentry too were impoverished by the late war 
to a very great extent, having " consumed as much in eight months 
as they had gathered in four years before,"^ so that the wisest of 
the Huguenot leaders were of the opinion that the religion was not 
in a state to attempt anything by open arms. 

While he tried to augment his forces Conde sought to remedy 
matters by appeal to the King,'^ complaining of the outrages 
inflicted on the Huguenots^ (Montluc had even hanged seven 
gentlemen of the entourage of the queen of Navarre, in Langue- 
doc), being careful not to impute these wrongs, however, to the 
King, but reprobating the mahgnancy of the cardinal of Lorraine 
and accusing him of secret intelligence with Spain. ^ The cardinal, 

1 C. S. p. For., Nos. 2,352, 2,379, July 14 and 29, 1569. 

2 Ihid., No. 2,379, J^'y 29, 1568; on the calculative policy of the French crown 
see Languet, Epist. seer., I, 92 and La Noue's comments in Memoires militaires, 
chap. xii. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 2.379, July 29, 1568. 

4 Letter of August 23, 1568 analyzed in De Thou, Book XLIV. 

s See the complaints of the prince of Conde to the King, under date of June 
29 and July 22, 1568 in Due d'Aumale, Histoire des princes de Condi, II, App. I. 

6 See the gist of the prince of Conde's petition, summarized in C. S. P. For., 
No. 2,451, August 23, 1568. As an instance of the care of the government to be 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 363 

thus assailed, parried through the King, who two days later issued 
a proclamation, which after reciting the complaints of murder, 
robberies and other wrongs alleged by those of "the pretended 
Reformed religion," declared that the King, having sent his mai- 
tres des requetes into the provinces where these acts of violence had 
been perpetrated, was satisfied of the substantial justice of the 
administration, and asserted that the complaints had either been 
manufactured by the Huguenot leaders, or else grossly exaggerated. 
The proclamation closed by commanding all judges and other 
officers, on pain of deprivation, to search out and punish wrong- 
doers, so that those of the religion might not have ground for 
complaining that justice was not done them/ 

Such a proclamation was mere verbiage, however, and was 
intended to lull the anxiety of the Huguenots while the govern- 
ment's preparations went forward. It deceived none of the Prot- 
estant leaders. The signs of the times were too plain to be con- 
cealed. Arms were secretly levied and stored in La Rochelle, 
Saintes, Chatellerault, St. Jean-d'Angely.^ To these signs was 
now added another unmistakable indication. In August, 1568 
the concentration of fourteen companies of gendarmes and several 
bands of infantry in Burgundy, where the two most conspicuous 
of the leaders of the Huguenots then were — the prince of Conde 
and Coligny^ — ostensibly to prevent the prince from delivering 
his German reiters to the prince of Orange, precipitated civil war 
anew. 

Protestant historians have contended that the government of 
Charles IX was wholly to blame for the renewal of war. But 

forehanded, agents of the crown secretly measured even the height of the wall in 
the case of towns of doubtful allegiance. Coligny complained of the attacks which 
his gentlemen and those of his brother D'Andelot suffered. At Dijon the prince 
of Conde prosecuted a person whom he accused of secretly having measured the 
walls of Noyers (Claude Haton, II, 537, note). 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 2,464, August 25, 1568; cf. No. 2,484. 

2 Claude Haton, II, 539; Le Laboureur, II, 593. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 2,441, August 20, 1568; Conde was at Noyers, Coligny at 
Tanlay (Yonne): D'Aubigne, Book III, 5, note; Due d'Aumale, Hist, des princes de 
Conde, II, 367. 



364 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

it may be fairly said that Charles IX acted not only according to 
his right, but according to policy in seeking to prevent the union 
of the Huguenot and Dutch interests. France was not yet pre- 
pared to espouse an open anti-Spanish policy, though she was 
already secretly so inclining,^ and the projected alliance of the 
prince of Conde and the prince of Orange^ would have been cer- 
tain seriously to compromise her with Spain. Finally, it may be 
added, that there was not a little of self-ambition in Conde's action.^ 

This attempted co-operation of the prince of Conde and the 
prince of Orange drew the French government into close associa- 
tion with the duke of Alva. But the diplomatic relations now 
established between the courts of Paris and Madrid were of much 
greater importance and the negotiations were energetically for- 
warded by the cardinal of Lorraine, who on November 2 1 , sent the 
cardinal of Guise into Spain charged to treat of marriage between 
Philip II and Marguerite of Valois,^ or if that proved unacceptable, 
to suggest Philip's marriage with one of the daughters of the 
Emperor, while Charles IX was to marry the other. At the same 
time Alva proposed that the duke of Anjou — the future Henry III 
— should marry the queen of Portugal. ^ The far-reaching effect 
of such a series of alliances is manifest. The two houses of Haps- 
burg would become dynastically united again in a common family 
and politico-religious purpose, into which association France would 
be woven. 

The government had secretly prepared for the sudden invest- 

1 Languet, Epist. seer., I, 64, 69. 

2 Ibid., I, 75; Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 284-86. The 
prince of Orange at this time was near Cleves having an army but no money. 
See a letter of the prince of Orange to the duke of Wiirttemberg and the margrave 
of Baden asking for pecuniary assistance. September 17, 1568 {ibid.. Ill, 291). 
His plans again failed. He tried to enter Picardy for the purpose of uniting 
with the Huguenots. But the alertness of the marshal Cosse again prevented 
Genlis as it had foiled Cocqueville, and the prince was compelled to abandon 
his purpose. At Strasburg his army was dissolved (ibid.. Ill, 295, 303, 313-16; 
Languet, Epist. ad Camer., 89; Epist. seer., I, 75). 

3 Even La Noue, 804 and Beza II, 277, assert this. 

4 Elizabeth of Valois, queen of Spain, had died October 3, 1568. 

s C. S. P. For., Nos. 2,640, 2,666, November 22, December 8, 1568. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 365 

ment of La Rochelle, intending to " spring" the war suddenly at that 
point, but had been compelled to alter the plan. This change of 
plan induced the resolution to attempt to capture the prince and 
Coligny/ the purpose of the Guises (with whom the King and his 
mother were not acting) probably being to send them to the scaffold, 
as Alva had done with Egmont and Hoorne. 

But the deception and duplicity which they used to allay the 
suspicions of the prince and the admiral offended the bluff, sol- 
dierly honor of Tavannes, who, though a bigoted Catholic, would 
not stoop to such a dishonorable course of action.^ While feigning 
to obey the orders to capture the two leaders, he contrived to apprise 
them of their danger by managing so as to have his letters inter- 
cepted by them. 3 Thanks to this timely warning, escape was 
made possible. On August 23, 1568 Conde and Coligny, accom- 
panied by the members of their families and D'Andelot's — the 
princess of Conde being pregnant — crossed the Loire in sudden 
flight, guarded on the road by a hundred horsemen. The fugitives 
were bound for La Rochelle, which was safely reached without 
mishap, though not without peril. 

From the safe retreat of this famous port and stronghold the 
prince of Conde issued a manifesto protesting that he and his 
followers intended nothing prejudicial to the King, but only to 
protect those of the religion from the tyranny and oppression of 
their enemies. A form of oath was adopted, to be taken by the 
nobility, officers, and others of the prince's army, regulations 
were issued for the maintenance of discipline in the army, for 
the preventon of desertion, private plundering, and avoidance of 
excess of baggage, camp-followers, disorders, and quarrels. ^ 

^ C. S. p. For., No. 2,441, August 20, 1568. 

2 Tavannes, chap. xxi. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 2,477, August 29, 1568. Norris states the fact that Conde 
and the admiral were warned by the letters they intercepted. The due d'Aumale 
{Hist, des princes de Conde, II, 13) has shown the deliberate intention of Ta- 
vannes so to do. 

4 D'Aubigne, III, 24: "Le prince .... fit publier les loix militaires." Issued 
.from La Rochelle, September 9, 1568. Summary in C. 5. P. For., No. 2,514. 

De Serres gives the text at p. 158. Delaborde gives the admiral Coligny the credit 



366 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The government at once took up the gage of battle and prepared 
to push the war. On September 25, 1568, an edict proscribed the 
Reformed faith, exiled the pastors thereof, and excluded Protes- 
tants from public offices and from the universities.' As far back 
as July the government had begun negotiations with the Pope to 
secure license to alienate from the lands of the church 200,000 
crowns per annum. This had failed when first petitioned,^ but 
the cardinal of Lorraine by the end of August had managed to 
raise 1,200,000 francs, although half of it had to go to pay old debts 
to the Parisians. 3 The holy father, having at last been persuaded 
of the good of the cause, consented to the alienation of 100,000 
crowns annual rent of the clerical lands, upon condition that the 
money be strictly employed for the compulsion of those who denied 
the authority of Rome and the revocation of the Edict of Tolera- 
tion.'* The debate upon the measure pertaining to the church 
lands brought about a clash in the King's Privy Council between 
the cardinal of Lorraine and the chancellor L'Hopital, on Septem- 
ber 19. The latter protested against the withdrawal of the Edict 
of Toleration, on the ground that it would induce the war at once 

for these regulations (III, 522). Cf. C. S. P. For., No. 2,486, discourse of the 
cardinal Chatillon, who attributes the evils of France to the cardinal of Lorraine 
and refutes the charge of ambition brought against the Huguenot leaders. The 
cardinal iJed to England at this time (see La Ferriere, Le XVI" siecle et les Valois, 
217; D'Aubigne, III, 12, note 31). He died in 1571. There was a rumor that 
Coligny, too, had gone to England (Languet, Epist. seer., 1, 109). 

1 Fontanon, IV, 292, 294; Claude Haton, II, 540; (September 25) C. S. P. For., 
No. 2,561, §1, September 30, 1568; ibid., Ven., No. 433, September 28, 1568. A 
supplementary edict suppressed all offices of judicature and finance held by the 
Huguenots (C. 5. P. For., No. 2,674, December 16, 1568). 

2 Ibid., No. 2,363, July 20, 1568. 

3 Ibid., No. 2,467, August 27, 1568. 

4 C. S. P. Ven., No. 430, September 11, 1568. Other sources of revenue were 
a loan upon the security of the wine duties for several years — a heavy burden upon 
the people (Claude Haton, II, 547) — which yielded about 300,000 crowns per annum. 
In addition, the King raised a benevolence of 50,000 crowns from Paris, and Venice 
loaned 100,000 crowns (C. S. P. For., No. 2,640, November 22, 1568) later in- 
creased to 200,000. The Pope later authorized the sale of 50,000 crowns' worth of 
the temporalities of the church, but the sales were so managed by certain of 
the clergy that the government got little from them (ibid., No. 233 April, 1569, 
summary of an ordinance of Charles IX). 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 367 

and lead to the overrunning of the country again by the reiters, 
and refused to affix the royal seal to the proposed ordinance, with- 
out which the papal writing was of no force in France. The car- 
dinal retaliated by taunting the chancellor with being a hypocrite 
and asserted that his wife and daughter were Calvinists. L'Hopi- 
tal retorted by sarcastically alluding to the notorious administra- 
tive practices of the Guises, at which the cardinal became so angry 
that he would have seized the venerable chancellor by his great 
white beard if the marshal Montmorency had not stepped between 
them. In his rage the cardinal, turning to the queen mother, 
declared the chancellor's vicious policy of toleration was at the 
bottom of the evils of France and that if he were in the hands of the 
Parlement of Paris his head would not tarry on his shoulders 
twenty-four hours longer.^ The issue of this episode was not 
long in forthcoming. On September 28 Michel de I'Hopital was 
dismissed from office^ and the seal given to the archbishop of Sens, 
Biragues, a pupil of the Guises and a henchman of Philip of Spain. ^ 
It was he who rescinded the Edict of January and the other two 
edicts of pacification and exiled all Huguenot preachers from 
France within twenty days, forbade all exercise of the Reformed 
religion on pain of death, and dismissed from office and the 
universities all those who were Protestants. 

The new civil war was represented as a war of religion ; indeed 
as a crusade, the King going to evensong at La Sainte-Chapelle, 
on Michaelmas Eve, where the heart of St. Louis was interred, 
and on the morrow marching in procession with the relics of St. 
Denis, as did the former kings of France before they took the road 
of the cross. The duke of Anjou, the King's brother, was appointed 
lieutenant-general of the realm on September i, and proclamation 
made to the companies of gendarmerie and the bands of archers, 
to assemble at Orleans, now become the Catholic headquarters.'^ 

1 For details see Norris to Cecil, C. S. P. For., No. 2,550, September 25, 1568. 

2 Taillander, Vie de L'Hopital, 200. 

3 Even Biragues, now the chancellor, v^fas in the secret pay of Spain {Papiers 
d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 387). 

4C S. P. For., No. 2,490, September i; No. 2,529, September 15, 1568. The 
two Protestant places of worship in Orleans were burned {ihid.. No. 2,561, § 2, 



368 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Charles IX, in October, went in person to Orleans, in order by 
his presence, to enlarge the enlistments, and also to overcome the 
suspicion that the whole movement was made at the instigation 
of the Guises. The government of Paris was left to the King's 
youngest brother, the duke of Alen^on, assisted by the duke 
of Montmorency. In the meantime the prince of Conde had 
remained in the vicinity of La Rochelle during September, while 
his army was gathering.^ When the army was massed, he moved 
up the Loire with his forces. 

The emulation that had characterized the Huguenot nobility 
in the last war now served Conde well. The provinces were alive 
with activity during this autumn. The young prince of Navarre, 
the future Henry IV, was to win eminence in the coming struggle, 
and at this time was at Bergerac where forces were assembled to 
assist Conde. ^ The Catholic and governmental forces were no 
less alert. The King's captains were employed in all parts of 
the realm to levy men. Montluc, discovering a plot in Bordeaux 
to deliver the town to those of the Reformed religion, executed 
the greater part of those so accused. At Toulouse, Auxerre, and 
Lyons all men were constrained to go to mass. In Provence and 
Languedoc the peasantry even rose against the Protestants. To 
crown all both sides levied reiters in Germany. ^ 

September 30, 1568). Things would have gone worse with the Protestants of 
Orleans had it not been for the Politique marshal Vieilleville, whose government 
it was, and who did all in his power to protect the Huguenots (ibid., No. 190, March 
24, 1569). 

1 Jeanne d'Albret, who had been at Nerac, reached La Rochelle on September 
28, having crossed the Garonne "under the nose of Montluc" (Olhagaray, 
575)) who, it is said, had orders to intercept her (Palma Cayet, Part I, 166). 
Montluc glosses over his negligence in this particular (Commentaires, III, 175). 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 2,561, September 30, 1568. D'Andelot was in Brittany, 
ibid.. No. 2,527, September 15, 1568), but on September 16 he crossed the Loire 
(La Noue, chap, xix) with 1,500 horse and 20 ensigns of foot (D'Aubigne, III, 13, 
note 7) in spite of the strict injunctions of the King to prevent him (D'Aubigne, 
III, 14, note). 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 2,610 §2, October 29, 1568. Duke William of Saxony 
earnestly begged Charles IX to employ his soldiery {ibid., No. 2,640, §5, November 
22, 1568) and the margrave of Baden accepted a command of reiters in the King's 
army (Le Laboureur, II, 724). The duke of Deuxponts offered 8,000 reiters and 




AUTUMN CAMPAIGN 

OF 1568 



Methue/i &.Co. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 369 

The lower course of the Loire was the fighting-line, for command 
of which both sides aimed.' The tactics of Anjou were to avoid 
an engagement, if possible, and to prevent Conde's forces from 
crossing, which he succeeded in doing through a stratagem.^ The 
passage of the Loire being stopped, and the river towns being all 
garrisoned, especially Saumur, the prince of Conde, after taking 
the castle of Champigny which belonged to the duke de Mont- 
pensier, fell back on Loudun. The country was so wet that 
neither horse nor foot could do much. The prince excelled in 
cavalry, the Catholic army in infantry.^ In the provinces the 
Catholic preponderance was marked. The duke of Aumale in 
Champagne had 18 companies of men-at-arms and 25 ensigns of 
footmen, awaiting the coming of the reiters; Marshal Cosse was 
in Picardy with 15 companies of men-at-arms and 2,000 footmen. 
The reason for the presence of so many troops so far from the 
actual seat of the war is to be found in the fact that the movements 
of the prince of Orange, who had entered France in December,'* 
gave great anxiety to the government. The prince was now on 

40 ensigns of lansquenets to Conde (C. S. P. For., No. 2,666, §1, December 8, 1568). 
They were to have no pay for two months, expecting to pay themselves by seizing 
the towns and castles belonging to the house of Guise in Lorraine and Champagne. 
In the end England paid for their services (see the record of the receipts in C. S. P. 
For., No. 2,011, September 10, 1571; No. 2,123, November 13, 1571). The Catho- 
lic reiters were to be paid by a forced loan exacted of the Parisians (ibid.. No. 
2,666, December 8, 1568). 

1 North to Cecil, C. S. P. For., December 30, 1568, Januaiy 11, 1569. 

2 For description of it see C. S. P. For., No. 2,640, §15, November 22, 1568. 
The engagement of Jazeneuil that followed, November 17, was a blow to them 
(see La Noue, chap, xxi; D'Aubigne, IIL 37; C. S. P. For., No. 2,640, §1). The 
minute account of the due d' Aumale may be found in Hist, des princes de Conde, 
II, 26-34. Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral 0} France, 204-9, ^^^ ^^ 
admirable account. 

3 Conde's army before the defeat at Jazeneuil was estimated at 12,000 foot and 
4,000 horse, all well mounted and armed, besides a very large number of irregular 
troops. 

4 Fourquevaux to Catherine de Medici, January 13, 1569, on the authority 
of a letter of the Spanish ambassador in France, dated January 7, 1568 (Depeches 
de Fourquevaux, II, 47). Ala va must have regarded the news as highly important, 
for the courier was only six days in making the journey to Madrid. 



37° THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the borders of Picardy, but his horsemen rode as far as Compiegne 
and Rheims, to the amazement of the court and the consternation 
of the Guises, who dispatched the cardinal of Guise to Madrid 
for the help of Philip II.' If the two princes could have effected 
a junction in the meantime, Paris would have been between ham- 
mer and anvil. As it was, the danger was so great that the King 
hastily began to raise an additional army in December, calling 
out ban and arriere-ban, and in order that the capital might be able 
to withstand a siege, if worst came to worst, drew all the provisions 
of the country roundabout Paris for a space of ten miles into the 
city. 

The position of the various armies was an interesting one. In 
east France the reiters of the duke of Deuxponts were endeavoring 
to join Orange who delayed his movement to await their coming,^ 
while Alva dogged his steps.^ In the west Conde was vainly 
striving to cross the Loire in order to join Orange and the Protes- 
tant reiters, while the duke of Anjou was straining every nerve to 
keep him back. In the midst of all, Paris lay calm but tense'* — 
the undisturbed center of the cyclone of war. Both armies suf- 

1 Fourquevaux, II, 31, 54. 

2 Coll. Godefroy, XCVI, William of Orange to Charles IX, December 21, 
1568. 

3 Alva sent word to Charles IX at all hazards to hold the prince of Conde back, 
himself promising to take care of Orange. The King sent the Spanish duke a very 
large commission, not only to levy upon the country for necessities but even to enter 
the French walled towns — so far were the two crowns now in accord (C S. P. 
For., No. 2,666, December 8, 1568). 

4 The alarm of the government at this hour over Paris may be measured by 
two police regulations of the time. One ordered search to be made throughout the 
town twice a week, in all hostelries and other places, and forbade mechanics to 
leave their houses on certain days. The other allowed those of the religion who 
had been forbidden to leave their houses on certain days to appoint one of their 
servants to go about the town on their affairs. He was to have a certificate signed 
by the captain and commissaires of the quarter, and to be unarmed. The com- 
missaires were to make a weekly search in the houses of those of the religion, to make 
proces-verbal of the names of all the domestics, signed by the master of the house, and 
to remove all arms found therein (ibid., No. 2,671, December 11; No. 2,684, Decem- 
ber 23, 1568). Both ordinances were registered by the Parlement. During the 
Christmas season no Calvinist was permitted to stir out of doors (ibid., No. 2,688, 
§3, December 26, 1568). 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 371 

fered from the terrible weather of December. The soldiers of 
each side were dying of famine and privation.' 

The hope long deferred that Conde had cherished of Orange 
joining him made him heartsick at last; the latter could not come, 
for Alva, the duke of Aumale, and the Catholic reiters under a 
German colonel named Schomberg — a name destined to become 
illustrious — were too closely watching his movements.^ Even 
had these impediments been removed, the Seine and the Loire 
would have had to be crossed — an impossible feat. 

The winter of 1568-69 was occupied with Huguenot and 
Catholic negotiations for foreign support and with preparations 
for a renewal of the war when the spring came. Meanwhile the 
delay of France to pay its debts in Switzerland had gradually 
provoked a change of public sentiment in the forest cantons, which 
pushed them a few years later into espousal of Spain. The loss of its 
ascendency in Switzerland was a particularly hard blow to France. 
For the policy of Spain had been to rouse a religious war in the 
Alpine lands, so that her intervention would find easy entrance. 
The five cantons of the center were the fulcrum of Spain's diplo- 
matic efforts. Day by day the tension became greater, the five 
cantons inclining more to Spain, their neighbors leaning to France, 
while between the two groups Bern and Zurich continued neutral, 
refusing to aid the prince of Conde with either men or money. ^ 

Military events were insignificant. Anjou remained with 

1 "The good disposition and order that is kept in the prince's army is much 
to be commended, nothing like oppressing the country where they pass, as that of 
M. d'Anjou, which was waxed hateful by their insolent behavior, both to Protes- 
tants and Catholics. M. d'Anjou has bestowed the greatest part of his army in the 
towns upon the river of Loire." — C. S. P, For., No. 12, January 4, 1569. 

The presence of the royal army in Anjou, under the command of the duke of 
Anjou, was a heavy burden upon the people of the province, which already had 
suffered heavily from the depredations of the Huguenots in the preceding year. 
The municipal council of Angers, on November 4, was called upon to furnish 800 
pairs of stockings, 1,500 pairs of shoes, powder, bread, hay, straw, oats, pikes, 
shovels, mattocks, and other implements. The town was filled with sick and 
wounded soldiers (Joubert, Les miseres de I' Anjou, etc., 36). 

2 Orange was also in want of pay for his troops (Languet, Epist. seer., I, 82). 

3 Revue d'histoire diplomatique, XIV (1900), 51-52, 64. 



372 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

his army in Limousin, and the prince of Conde in Perigord. 
On December 23, 1568, there was a skirmish near Loudun. In 
January Conde marched to the reHef of Sancerre. The town was 
of very strong situation and Brocbart, the Huguenot commandant, 
filled a great number of wine-vats with sand and earth and used 
them for gabions, and so managed to hold out against five assaults,^ 
although the place was so invested by the Catholic army that the 
prince could do nothing to reheve it. Failing this, he marched 
upon Saumur in the vain hope of forcing a crossing of the Loire 
at some point, on the way putting the garrison of 150 men in the 
abbey of St. Florens at Pont-de-Ce to the sword. Both armies 
suffered terribly from the weather and the condition of the country.^ 

In the King's council the PoHtique party still labored for peace, 
and in the interim made an unsuccessful effort to restore the Edict 
of Toleration. 3 The cessation of hostilities, however, was com- 
plete enough to alarm the Pope, who feared another truce would 
be made and used exhortation and promise in order to prevent any 
compromise with heresy.'* 

The Dutch and English were attentive observers of the move- 
ment in France, the former especially, for they felt that they and 
the French Protestants were engaged in a common cause. From 
England came numbers of English gentlemen to La Rochelle, in 
order to follow Conde in the war, and the Channel and the Bay of 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 22, January 10, 1569; No. 151, March 5, 1569; La Pope- 
liniere, Book XV; De Thou and D'Aubigne add nothing new. 

2 On the hardness of the winter of 1568-69 see La Noue, chap, xxiv; Hist, du 
Lang., V, 514; Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, V, 156; Whitehead, Coligny, 
202. 

3 Coll. Godferoy, CCLVII, No. 57. Remonstrance of Jean de Montluc against 
the continuance of the war, December 2, 1568. In the council of the King 
a motion was made that the Protestants should be permitted to enjoy the benefit 
of the edicts granted before; that Conde should be given the government of 
Saintonge, and be given leave to aid Orange against Spain. But neither Catherine 
de Medici nor the King would listen to the proposal, and the cardinal of Lorraine 
argued that it would be dangerous to further Conde in any way (C. S. P. For., 
No. 23, January 10, 1569). 

4 Potter, Pie V, 19; ed. Gouban, Book III, No. 4, p. 135, letter to the cardinal 
Bourbon, January, 1569; ihid., p. 23; ed. Gouban, Book III, No. 5, p. 138, letter 
to the cardinal of Lorraine, same date. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 373 

Biscay were thronged with Enghsh and Dutch privateers.^ 
Elizabeth, as the saying went, wanted "to throw the stone and hide 
the arm." Although the English ambassador, Sir Henry Norris, 
protested the innocence of his government and the queen wrote 
with her own hand that she would not interfere in France, English- 
men were landed at La Rochelle and in Brittany and English vessels 
brought over gunpowder, shoes, and arms.^ 

While Anjou held the line of the Loire, the French government 
established its military base at ChElteau-Thierry on the Marne 
in order to prevent communication between the Protestant German 
princes, especially the elector palatine and the duke of Deuxponts; 
or between the Dutch and its own revolted subjects. To this end it 
was planned that the duke of Aumale, with a force of reiters sent 
by the margrave of Baden and the count of Westelburg, and some 
troops proferred by Count Mansfeldt^ should be sent against the 
prince of Orange, while the duke of Anjou was to go against the 
prince of Conde.^ But William of Orange effected a junction 

1 C. S. p. Ven., No. 439, November 9, 1568 and No. 448, January 6, 1569. 
The distress of commerce and the legal complications arising from the semi-piratical 
acts were very great (see C. S. P. Dom., 1547-80, pp. 378, 386, May 29, 1570, 
July 29, 1570). 

2 Ihid., Ven., No. 448, January 6, 1569. The cardinal Chatillon was the 
Huguenot agent in England (see ibid.. For., No. 71, January 22, 1569; No. 82, 
January 30, 1569). On his financial negociations see the detailed note of the baron 
de Ruble in D'Aubigne, III, 61. 

3 Count Mansfeldt to the duke of Aumale, January 22, 1569, Coll. Godefroy, 
CCLVII, No. 58; C. S. P. For., No. 172, March 15, 1569. They came, not merely 
with weapons and bringing horses, but with great vans, flails, and harvest tools, 
with which to plunder the fields. 

4 The forces of D'Aumale were 5,500 reiters, 26 companies of French horsemen, 
and 30 ensigns of foot, besides others. The troops that the King had were 26 
companies of gendarmes, 15 companies of the regular French army, 4,500 Swiss, 
2,500 reiters, and his household troops. Montmorency retired to Chantilly owing 
to the combination against him (C 5. P. For., No. 75, January 25, 1569. For 
the details see Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 315). There had 
been a fierce strife between the factions of Guise and Montmorency for D'Aumale's 
place, the three marshals, Montmorency, Vieilleville, and Cosse resisting his ap- 
pointment. The hostility of the Parisians to Montmorency, though certainly not 
the accusation of the cardinal of Lorraine that the constable's son had secret intel- 
ligence with the prince of Orange, militated against him. The English ambas- 
sador even believed that Montmorency and the duke of Bouillon might appear in 



374 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

with the duke of Deuxponts' in spite of D'Aumale's effort to pre- 
vent him.^ 

The attitude of the Lutheran princes had now become more 
definite in favor of the Huguenots. ^ 

The international Protestant plan was to drive its blows in on 
either side of Lorraine and thus sever the chain through central 
Europe by which Philip II held his dominions together, and to 
separate the two houses of Hapsburg.^ The conduct of the Em- 
peror furthered this project, for when Charles IX sent La Forrest 
to the Emperor to protest against the action of the Lutheran princes 
of -Germany and to continue the talk of his marriage with the 
Emperor's daughter, Ferdinand, while expressing his regret at the 
troubled state of France, received the marriage proposition coldly 

arms for Conde. Sir Henry Norris to the queen: "On the 23d ult. the duke of 
Montmorency required the captains and echevins of Paris to come to the Louvre 
to speak with him, and declared that their disorders and unaptness to be ruled was 
not unknown to the King. Lignerolles, of the court of Parlement, and captain-general 
of twenty-two ensigns, answered that Paris was like to a ship, whereof the master, 
neglecting his charge, it is requisite that the pilots do put hand to the helm; where- 
unto Montmorency coldly replied, 'qu'il parloyt en curtault de butique' " (C. 5. P. 
For., No. 50, January 15, 1569). 

1 Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 516. 

2 Claude Haton, II, 516 and note; C. S. P. For., Nos. 42, 50, January 11, 15, 
1569. 

3 It appears that the German princes thought of sending a deputation into 
France to remonstrate with Catherine de Medici. At least the minute of a letter to 
the queen has been preserved which intimates as much. In it they deplore the sad 
effects of the persecutions in France (see Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, 
II, 99-100, June, 1567). On January 24, 1569, a decree of the elector of Saxony 
commanded all captains and soldiers who were his subjects and who might be 
serving under the duke of Alva or the King of France, to return home within two 
months after the date of the publication of the decree; and further ordered his 
officers to arrest any persons whom they might find setting forth for these services. 
— Dresden, January 24, 1569 (C 5. P. For., No. 74). In March, Augustus of 
Saxony, the count palatine, and other German princes sent 50,000 silver crowns to 
Conde {ibid., Ven., No. 452, March 15, 1569). 

4 William of Orange with his two brothers went into Germany in order to push 
the plan in conjunction with the duke of Deuxponts — D'Aubigne, III, 45, 60 
(C. 5. P. For., No. 131, February 24, 1569). For the detail of this movement see 
Gachard, La Bibliotheque Nationale a Paris, II, 275, 278, 280. The duke of 
Aumale has published some of his letters at this time {Hist, des princes de Conde, 
II, 406 ff.). 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 375 

and complained of the damage done by the French army under 
the duke of Aumale within the limits of the empire,^ and recom- 
mended that Charles try peaceful methods instead of force for 
the pacification of his kingdom.^ Parallel with the project to 
co-operate with the prince of Orange and the duke of Deuxponts, 
Coligny planned a revival of Huguenot activity in the south of 
France so that this diversion would weaken resistance to the other. 
The aim was, with the aid of the ''viscounts" to break a way 
across the upper Loire, and so open the road to German assistance.^ 

The combined array against D 'Aumale was too great for him to 
make head.^ Nor was the adverse double military situation the 
sole anxiety of the French government. Montmorency and the 
duke of Bouillon were so disaffected that there was even expecta- 
tion of their openly joining the Huguenots. The cost of the two 
armies amounted to 900,000 livres a month, besides the gendar- 
merie and artillery, which was about two milhon each quarter. ^ 
There was owing to the gendarmerie 12,000,000 of livres for six 
quarters; to the 6,000 Swiss with the duke of Anjou 300,000 livres; 
to those with the duke of Aumale 100,000 livres besides what 
was owing to the French infantry. Both of the King's command- 
ers were so short of funds that they were forced to seize church-plate 
and even reliquaries.^ 

In these extremities Charles IX viewed the renewal of war on 
the opening of spring with alarm and began to think of making 
peace for a term, with no intention of keeping it, but merely in 
order to avoid a catastrophe and with the hope that some of the 
Huguenots might be disarmed in the interim. But suddenly the 

1 D'Aumale at this time lay at Phalsburg and Saverne, with 4,000 reiters, 2,000 
French horse, and 10,000 footmen. His penetration within the imperial frontier 
offended and alarmed Strasburg wheie a French faction had unsuccessfully 
plotted to betray the town. 

2 See News-Letter from La Rochelle, January, 1569, in Appendix XVII. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 105, February 10, 1569. 

^ Ibid., No. 151, March 5, 1569; Claude Haton, II, 517. 
5 Ibid., For., No. 155, March 5, 1569; on the desertions from D'Aumale's 
army see No. 172. 

^ Ibid., No. 105, February 10, 1569. 



376 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

cloud was lifted. The royal army under the nominal command 
of the duke of Anjou, but really commanded by the veteran Ta- 
vannes, who had orders to give battle at all cost before the duke 
of Deuxponts could arrive, won the decisive victory of Jarnac 
on March 13, 1569. It was a fierce and bloody battle. 

The prince of Conde, after having been dangerously wounded 
and taken prisoner, suffered a foul death at the hands of some 
unknown assassin in the royal army, who shot him with a pistol- 
ball."^ In the engagement the Scotchman, Stuart, who had killed 
the constable at St. Denis, was taken and brought to the duke, 
who said to him: "So here you are, you traitor, you who have 
frequently boasted that you wished to kill the queen, my mother. 
Now you shall receive your deserts." At that moment the marquis 
de Villars, the old constable's brother-in-law, appeared, and with 
his own hands executed vengeance.^ 

In Paris when news of the battle of Jarnac was brought a grand 
procession was authorized by the clergy and the Parlement. All 
the stores and shops were closed as though it were a holiday. The 
clergy, bearing the relics of the saints, marched first to the convent 
of the Cordeliers, and then to that of the Jacobins, where a fiery 
sermon was preached by a Jacobin of Auxerre named Mammerot. 
After the sermon the Te Deum was celebrated, and then the militia' 
of the city assembled under the command of the four captains, and 
a grand review was held in the streets. The celebration ended 

1 For comtemporary accounts of the battle of Jarnac see La Popeliniere, 
Book XV; Jean de Serres, 315 ff; D'Aubigne, Book V, chap, viii; Claude Haton, 
II, 548 and notes. The best modern accounts are Gigon, La hataille de Jarnac 
et la canipagne de 156Q en Angoumois, Angouleme, impr. Chasseignac (Extrait 
du Bulletin de la Societe archeologique et historique de la Charente), 1896; Patr}% 
in Bull. Soc. protest, frang., LIII, March 1902; Due d'Aumale, Histoire des 
princes de Conde, II, Book I, chap, i; Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral 
of France, 204-9, ^^ extremely lucid account. The evidence upon the assassina- 
tion of the prince is sifted by Denys d'Aussy, "L'assassin du prince de Conde a 
Jarnac (1569)," R. Q. H., XLIX, 573, and summarized (with some new addi- 
tions) in Whitehead, 206, note 2. The text of the famous dispatches, which were 
found in the gauntlet of the prince of Conde are printed in full in Due d'Aumale, 
Histoire des princes de Conde, II, App. iii. 

2 C 5. P. Ven., No. 454, March 15, 1569; cf. Brantome, III, 329. 




y* vz '/A 



r^tt.„i:^ »o jlnfamterie "UJUJl 

Catholiqucs [Qayoilerle CIi:: 

Protectants 

Les positions d&s moments sent numerotde^ 1.2,3. et3 

Marche des Catholiques 
a. Position probojble du port de la. Guirlande &n 1569 
\>. Emplaj:emef7t de la tete de pont 

c . Pont de bateJiux 

d. Camp occupe par le convoi de I'armee rqyaJe le IZau soir 



Chateauneuf 

s/- Charente 



Mithuvx & Co. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 377 

by a great bonfire in front of the Hotel-de-Ville, and the firing of 
cannon.^ 

The Pope took the victory of Jarnac as a direct answer to 
prayer.^ 

1 Claude Haton, II, 549, 550. 

2 Compare the Pope's letter of March 6, informing Charles IX that he has 
sent troops to him under Sforza and has prayed to God for victory (Potter, Pie V, 
28; ed. Gouban, Book III, letter 9, p. 148) with the letter of congratulation of 
March 28, after he had learned of the battle (ibid., p. 31; ed. Gouban, Book III, 
letter 10, p. 151). The duke of Anjou sent the flags and standards captured at 
Jarnac to Rome (Potter, Pie V, p. 54; ed. Gouban, Book III, 167, letter 17, 
April 26, 1569). 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE THIRD CIVIL WAR {Continued). THE PEACE OF 
ST. GERMAIN 

By the death of Conde the Admiral CoHgny became the actual 
leader of the Protestant cause in France^ the more so when his 
brother d'Andelot died on May 7,^ although the young prince 
of Conde and his cousin, Henry of Navarre, were theoretically so 
regarded. 3 In the nature of things, the leadership of two boys — 
the former was seventeen, the other sixteen years of age — could 
only be a nominal one. 

After the first shock of dismay at the prince's death had passed, 
the Huguenots were not dispirited. It is true that numbers of 
the Protestant gentry returned home.^ But the Huguenot position 
was strong in upper and lower Poitou, for the line of the Charente 
from Angouleme to Saintes was theirs, besides St. Jean-d'Angely, 
La Rochelle, and the islands of Marins and Oleron.^ The admiral 
rallied his forces at Tonnay- Charente,'^ which he could do with 
impunity since the duke of Anjou raised the siege of Angouleme 
on April 12.'^ 

The hope of the court was to prolong the war, since the King 
controlled most of the towns and the river passages, "while the 
religion, their conquered country excepted, had but the fields,"* 
until the resources of the Huguenots would at last become ex- 
hausted — money, men, munitions. But the queen of England 
loaned 20,000 livres to the Protestants, the jewels of Conde and 

1 "L'amiral demeurant toujours le principal gouverneur et conseiller en toutes 
les affaires des huguenots." — Castelnau, Book VII, chap. vi. 

2 Jean de Serres, t,t,t,. 

3 D'Aubign^, III, 58. 

4 Claude Haton, II, 557. s Ibid. 

6 D'Aubigne, III, 57; Jean de Serres, 326, gives details. 

7 Jean de Serres, 331. 

s C. S. P. For., No. 294, June 6, 1569. 

378 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 379 

Jeanne d'Albret being taken as security.^ Jeanne d' Alb ret in 
person directed the foreign negotiations of the Huguenots.^ The 
anxiety of the Huguenots was greatest over the effect which Conde's 
death might have upon the foreign assistance which they were 
looking for, and letters from the prince of Navarre and the other 
leaders of the Huguenot army in Saintonge earnestly urged the rei- 
ters' advance to the Loire.^ Coligny's hope was by making a detour 
by way of Cognac and Chalais to reach the Loire and effect a 
junction with Deuxponts. To his great relief, the prince of Orange 
and the duke of Deuxponts wrote assuring the admiral of their 
continued adherence/ As good as his word, Deuxponts, who 
was at Pont-a-Mousson on January ii, 1569, entered France near 
Langres, having passed by Joinville, the seat of the Guises in Lor- 
raine, where the old duchess of Guise was then staying,^ and 
advanced upon Dijon where he arrived on April 26.^ 

The real center of the government's activity was Metz, which 
became the basis of operations against Deuxponts and Orange.^ 

1 Queen Elizabeth was perfectly safe in making the loan, as the jewels were 
worth three times the sum advanced (Bourgon, Lije and Times of Sir Thomas 
Gresham, II, 334-36). C. S. P. For., No. 258 May 12, 1569; Due d'Aumale, I, 
70, note 2; John Casimir and the duke of Deuxponts both promised reiters. 

2 C. S. P. Ven., No. 460, September 15, 1569. 

3 Ibid., For., No. 252, May 9, 1569; the prince of Navarre and other leaders 
of the Huguenot army in Saintonge to the duke of Deuxponts and certain noblemen 
in his camp, and to the prince of Orange, earnestly urging them to advance on the 
Loire, and declaring that notwithstanding the death of the prince of Conde their 
other losses have been small and that their forces are not diminished or disheart- 
ened thereby. Not published in Letires missives de Henri IV. 

4 Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 316; Languet, Epist. ad 
Camer.. 105; Epist. seer., I, 81. Copies of five letters written by De Francourt, 
the agent for the Huguenot party with the duke of Deuxponts' and the prince 
of Orange, to the Huguenot leaders, expressing regret for the death of the prince 
of Conde, and assuring them of the continued adherence of the duke of Deuxponts 
and his reiters to their cause are cited in C. S. P. For., No. 207, April, 1569. The 
duke of Lorraine is said to have offered Deuxponts 100,000 crowns if he would 
withdraw his reiters {ibid.. No. 234, April 18, 1569). 

s Claude Haton, II, 517. ^ D'Aubigne, III, 66. 

7 Preparations looking forward to this movement had begun as far back as 
March, when the expulsion of all who would not conform to Catholicism was 
ordered by the cardinal of Lorraine as bishop of Metz and a prince of the empire 



380 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Active efforts were made to repair the duke of Anjou's losses and 
to strengthen his position.^ The offer of Spanish support which 
Alva had made was now formally accepted, for after the mission 
of Castelnau to the margrave of Baden to get relief, he was sent 
into Flanders to solicit the assistance of Alva, since it now had 
become the common interest of both crowns to crush the Protes- 
tants.^ The French commanders, the dukes of Nemours and 
Aumale, had received orders to prevent the approach of Deuxponts 
at all cost, 3 but Aumale, partially on account of carelessness, partly 
because of misinformation, failed in his task, and by clever 
management Deuxponts at last succeeded in crossing the Sa6ne 
above Bar into Auxerre and Berry, scaled the walls of Nevers, 
thereby shortening the road between him and the Huguenot army, 
and finally captured La Charite upon the Loire on May 20, after 
ten days of siege, and thus controlled the link which united Hugue- 
nots and reiters.4 

(C. S. p. For., No. 194, March 26, 1569; cf. Charles IX's proclamation to the same 
effect on April 6; see also Nos. 179, 197, the opposing petitions of the clergy of 
iVTetz and of the Protestants, dated March 19 and 30 respectively). 

The correspondence of the duke of Alenfon pertaining to the second civil war 
is in two volumes listed Nos. 36, 36 bis, in the St. Petersburg collection. The duke 
remained in Paris, and attended to the forwarding of powder, provisions, and money. 
In a letter of November 17, 1569, he writes to Charles IX that it is impossible for 
him to send the sums demanded unless he sells the plate and jewels of the King. 
In another he sends information of the duke of Tuscany, who was ready to loan 
100,000 ecus upon the jewels of the crown. He advises that this be done. Ac- 
cording to his estimate they were worth 500,000 livres (La Ferriere, Rapport sur 
les recherches jaites a la Bibliotheque imperiale de St. Petersbourg, 27). 

1 Proclamation by Charles IX: Commands all gentlemen and soldiers to repair 
to the camp of the duke of Anjou by the 20th of June, properly armed and equipped 
for service. Requires his officers to search out the names of such as disobey this 
order and send them to him, in order that they may be punished in such manner as 
he may think fit (C. 5. P. For., No. 281, May, 1569). The King is levying a new 
army and is disfurnishing his garrisons in Picardy and Normandy (ibid.. No. 287, 
June 3, 1569). Alva promised 4,000 Spanish troops (Neg. Tosc, III, 591). 

2 Castelnau, Book VII, chap. v. Alva advised him to treat Coligny et al. as 
he had treated Egmont and Hoorne. 

3 Ibid., loc. cit.; C. S. P. For., No. 236, April 23, 1569. 

4 Duke of Anjou to Catherine de Medici, May 23, 1569, Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, 
No. 12; La Popeliniere, Book XVI; Castelnau, Book VII, chaps, v, vi; D'Aubigne, 
III, 67 and note 2; Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 317; La None, 




Brantome ( 




Meihuen & Co- 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 381 

If the Huguenots had been dispirited after Jarnac, they had 
reason to feel elated after the capture of La Charite. Although 
the duke of Anjou kept the field in Saintonge, Angoumois, and 
Limousin, the army was so mutinous for want of pay, so depleted 
by desertion and disease, that it was far from formidable. * Paris 
was in consternation after the capture of La Charite and anticipated 
seeing the high hats and great feathers of the reiters before long.^ 
The echevins of the city were ordered with all speed to make sale 
of the property of the Protestants to provide means for a new 
army, which had to be made up of peasant levies, " all their soldiers 

chap, xxiv; C. S. P. For., No. 286, June 3, 1569, Sir Henry Norris to the Queen: "The 
duke of Deuxponts' army being before La Charite, he caused 600 French harque- 
busiers and certain companies of reiters to pass over the river, besieging the town 
on both sides, and having made a breach which was scant scalable, they made a 
proud assault, not without loss of some of their soldiers, and entered the town by 
force, and put to the sword as many as they found within the same. The Cardinal, 
to save his brother from the stigma of the loss of La Charite, made Count Mont- 
meyo the scapegoat" (C 5. P. For., No. 293, June 7, 1569). For other details see 
Hippeau, "Passage de I'armee du due des Deux-Ponts dans la Marche et le 
Limousin en 1569," Rev. des Soc. savant des depart., 5^ serie, V (1873), p. 571; 
Le Boeuf (Jean), Histoire de la prise d'Auxerre par les Huguenots, et de la delivrance 
de la mesme ville, les annees 1567 et 1568, avec un recit de ce qui a precede et de 
ce qui a suivi ces deux fameux evenemens et des ravages commis a la Charite, Gien, 
Cosne, etc. et autres lieux du diocese d'Auxerre, le tout precede d'une ample preface 
sur les antiquites d'Auxerre et enrichi de notes historiques sur les villes, bourgs et 
villages et sur les personnes principales qui sont nommees dans cette histoire, par 
un chanoine de la cathedrale d'Auxerre, Auxerre, 1723. 

1 Castelnau, Book VI, chap, vi; C. S. P. For., No. 286, June 3. The reiters 
and the Swiss in the royal service were paid, to the disadvantage of the King's 
subjects, so that many captains resigned (i&iJ., No. 351, July 27, 1569). "L'es- 
quelz n'estoient si sanguinaires ni saccageurs d'eglises et de prebstres que ceux 
des huguenots, toutesfois estoient aussi larrons les ungs que les aultres pour serrer 
sur leurs harnois ce qu'ilz trouvoient a leur commodite; et par ainsi fut la France 
pleine d'estrangers pour la desoler et quasi rendre deserte" (Claude Haton, II, 547). 

The temper of the Catholic army is shown in a dispatch of the duke of Mont- 
pensier to Catherine, May i, 1569, from the camp at Villebois, reciting the death of 
young Brissac, the marshal's son before Mussidan. The town was taken by storm. 
"J'en trouve meilleu est qu'ils n'ont laisse reschapper ung tout seul de tous ceuls 
qui estoyent dedans que tout n'ayt este passe par le fil de I'epee, ce qui semble etre 
le vray droict de ceste guerre." — Collection Fillon, No. 2,656. 

2 "The admiral minds .... to refresh his reiters, and after the harvest to 
march towards Paris." — C. S. P. For., No. 311, June 30, 1569. 



382 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



and men of the greatest value being already abroad."^ The queen 
mother, having received letters complaining of lack of funds and 
mutiny in his army, bitterly reproached Aumale for negligence 
and cowardice in letting the duke of Deuxponts capture La Cha- 
rite, and hastily started for the army in Saintonge, in company with 
the cardinals of Lorraine and Bourbon, where she went right among 
the soldiers with words of encouragement.'' 




BATTLE OF LA ROCHE-L'ABEILLE, JUNE 25, 1569 
(Tortorel and Perissin) 

But mutiny of the army, and the capture of La Charite, with 
the prospective union of Coligny and the duke of Deuxponts, was 
not all that worried the queen and the cardinal. Casimir of the 
County Palatine was reported to be coming w^ith 6,000 horse and 
as many foot; moreover, the Emperor was hostile. ^ The extremity 
of the government was so great that compromise was necessary, 
and Catherine had in mind to patch matters up by offering her 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 272, May 27, 1569. 

2 Ihid., No. 300, Norris to Cecil, June 14, 1569. 

3 Ihid., No. 286, June 3, 1569. He required Charles IX, in the name of the 
empire, to withdraw his troops from Metz {ihid.. No. 286, Norris to Cecil, June 3, 
1569; ihid., No. 305, Mundt to Cecil, from Frankfourt [ ?], June 23, 1569). 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 383 

daughter Marguerite of France in marriage to the young Henry 
of Navarre — a plan whose consummation three years later pre- 
cipitated the massacre of St. Bartholomew,' Marshal Damville, 
the second son of the old constable, whose Politique leanings already 
had made him conspicuous, was significantly appointed the 
King's lieutenant in Languedoc, Toleration was in the air once 
more. 

But all of a sudden the Catholic cause revived for an instant.^ 
Coligny fell ill, and the progress of the Huguenot army was thereby 
impeded. Worse still, the duke of Deuxponts was stricken with 
a burning fever, so that he died the very day of his arrival in La 
Marche.3 Strozzi with some Italian forces attacked Coligny at 
La Roche-L'Abeille on June 25, when the rain was pouring in such 
torrents that the matchlocks of the Italians were useless, so that 
the soldiers on both sides clubbed their weapons — in the expres- 
sive words of D'Aubigne, "rompre croce sur cap" — that is, broke 
the crosses of their arquebuses over the heads of their antagonists. ^ 
In the conflict Strozzi was taken prisoner. From this time forth 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 286, June 3, 1569; Claude Haton, II, 692. Marguerite 
herself is evidence for this: " La maison de Montmorency aient ceux qui en avaient 
porte les premieres paroles." — Mem. de Marguerite de Navarre (ed. Guisson, 23), 24. 

2 "Depuis que je y suis, je fayst marcher vostre armaye en tele diligense, que 
cet les reystres eusent voleu marcher j'eudi, le jour de la feste Dyeu, je me pouves 
dyre le plus heureuse femme du monde, et vostre frere le plus glorieux, car vous 
eusies heu la fin de cete guere, aystent reduis le due de Dus Pons."— Catherine 
de Medicis a Charles IX de Limoges, 12 juin 1569, Fillon Collection, No. 127. 

3 The duke of Deuxponts died on June 11, 1569, of excessive drinking. See 
Janssen, VIII, 50; D'Aubigne, III, 69, note i; Jean de Serres, 364; Commentaires 
et lettres de Montluc, III, 208. Fortunately for the Huguenots his de3,th made little 
difference in the disposition of his army, for Wolrad of Mansfeldt, his able lieutenant, 
succeeded to the command. His prudence saved the reiters after the battle of 
Moncontour (see Niemarn, Geschichte der Grajen v. Mansfeldt, 1834). 

4 D'Aubigne, III, 73, 74: a graphic account; cf. Bulletin de la Soc. archeol. et 
hist, du Limousin, IV. 

" On I'appela arquebuse a croc quand on I'eut munie d'un axe de rotation reposant 
sur une fourchette ou croc et facilitant le pointage. L'arquebuse a croc etait 
souvent d'un poids considerable. Elle lanfait parfois des balles de plomb de 8, 
12 et 13 livres. Jusqu'au commencement du XVI ^ siecle, on mettait le feu a la 
charge au moyen d'une meche allumee que le coulevrinier portait enroulee autour 
du bras droit. A Pavie, les Espagnols se servirent d'une arquebuse perfectionnee 



384 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the army of the King was simply a disorderly mass of men. Famine 
and fever so reduced it that the duke of Anjou was not able to 
defend himself, let alone invading the enemy's territory. To 
increase his forces, he put arms in the hands of the peasantry of 
Limousin, with the result that a local jacquerie prevailed in the 
province. Lansac was repulsed in assaulting La Charite; Cha- 
tellerault (July 12) and Lusignan (July 20) were taken by the 
Huguenots.' The Catholics failed before Niort, to whose relief 
the brilliant La Noue came after his own seizure of Lufon.^ 

Under these circumstances the government was compelled 
to content itself with maintaining the line of the Loire save at 
La Charite, while it sought foreign succor.^ But the Swiss could 
not be expected until the middle of September, and Coligny sought 

par eux, dans laquelle la meche etait mise en contact avec Tamorce pour faire 
partir le coup, au moyen d'un serpentina sorte de pince qu'une detente faisait agir, 
sans que le pointage en f tit derange. Disposer la meche a la longueur voulue, en 
aviver le feu avant de tirer constituait I'operation de maniement d'arme designee 
sous ce nom compasser la meche." — La grande encyclopedie, III, art. " Arquebuse." 

1 La Popeliniere, Book XVII; D'Aubigne, III, 80, 81. 

2 D'Aubigne, Book V, chap, xii; Jean de Serres, 355, 356. 

3 Schomberg offered to make a levy of 4,000 Poles; 8,000 Swiss were asked 
of the Catholic cantons (C. S. P. For., No. 351, July 27, 1569). To support them 
Paris was mulcted for 700,000 francs and confiscation of Protestant lands to the 
crown eked out the balance {ibid.. No. 355, July 29, 1569). 

The following summary from Sir Henry Norris' letter to Queen Elizabeth sets 
forth the government's fiscal policy at this time: "On the ist instant the king went 
to the Palais, where in the end, the Parlement made a general arrest of all the goods, 
lands, and offices of those who bore arms against the king, and that all their lands 
held in fee — or knight-service — should revert to the crown; and that for the other 
lands, first there should be alienated for the sum of 50,000 crowns by the year, and 
given to the clergy, in recompense of their demesne, which the king had license to 
sell, and the remainder bestowed on such as had suffered loss by the religion and 
done service in these wars. It is accounted that this attainture will amount to 
2,000,000 francs a year. The same day they made sale, by sound of trumpet, of 
the admiral's goods in Paris. Some moved to have him executed in effigy, which 
was thought unmeet, as serving only to irritate him to proceed the more extremely. 
The king borrows 300,000 £ and offers to perpetuate the Councillors of Parle- 
ment's offices to their children, on their giving a certain sum of money; besides this 
they tax all citizens throughout the realm to make great contributions. The car- 
dinals of Bourbon and Lorraine, to show an example to the clergy, have offered to 
sell 4,000 £ rent of the monasteries of St. Germain and St. Denis" (C. S. P. For., 
No. 375, August 5, 1569). 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 



3^5 



to profit by the situation to take Saumur and thus secure a crossing 
on the lower Loire also, and Poitiers, for which purpose he divided 
the Protestant army,' to the intense alarm of the government, 
which tried, through the queen mother, to delay action by drawing 
the admiral into an empty parley. This is the moment when the 
marriage of Henry of Navarre with Marguerite of France was 
first broached. But the admiral and Jeanne d'Albret were not 




SIEGE OF POITIERS, 1569 
Tortorel and Perissin) 

to be deceived, and the siege of Poitiers was resolutely continued. 
(It lasted from July 25 to September 7, 1569.) The Catholic 
party fully appreciated that the importance of the war depended 
upon the success or failure of the Huguenots before this city, into 
which the young duke of Guise, then but nineteen years of age, 
had thrown himself on July 1 2 with all the ardor of his father before 
Metz. If Coligny took the town, some notable prisoners of war 
would have fallen into his hands, the dukes of Guise and Mayenne 
and the abbess of La Trinite, a sister of the cardinal of Bourbon^ 

1 D'Aubigne, II, 38, 39. 

2 Louise de Bourbon, abbess de Fontevrault, daughter of Francois, comte de 
Vendome, and of Marie de Luxembourg, died in 1575. 



386 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

and the ill-starred prince of Conde, the ransom of whom would 
have abundantly provided for the reiters in the service of the 
Protestants. 

Poitiers was one of the most mediaeval towns in France. The 
remains of its towers and fortifications, its narrow bridges, the 
ruined palace of the ancient dukes of Aquitaine, everything recalled 
the life of a vanished past."^ The admiral's guns soon made two 
breaches in the wall, but the fire from the castle and platform drove 
his men back and the breaches were repaired. The town, however, 
was too large in circuit for Guise to defend the whole, ^ since many 
vineyards and fields were within its walls, in consequence of which 
the French had made a line of double trenches within the town. 
On August 19 the Huguenots made a furious assault, broke 
through the wall, and drove the Guisard forces back of the inside 
trenches. The enemy was ''so straitly pent" that for sixteen days 
the soldiers had to live upon horse-flesh. The most remarkable 
incident of the siege was the driving-out of a great number of 
people, old men and women and children, who were unable to 
fight and could not be fed on account of the lack of provisions. So 
reluctant were they to go that they had to be whipped through 
the gates. Fortunately the duke of Guise took pity upon them 
at last, although in the city bread was so scarce that the food of 
one had to suffice for ten. All the horses and asses in the town 
were slain, the gentry out of honor to their position sating their 
hunger on the former. Of wheat, barley, and other grain there 
was none, nor was there a green thing left growing in the city. 
Even rats and mice were consumed. ^ 

1 For a graphic description of Poitiers in the sixteenth century see Ouvre, 
Histoire de Poitiers, 24, 25. 

2 Rel. ven., II, 271. 

3 All the historians narrate the history of the siege of Poitiers (see Claude 
Haton, II, 375 ff.; La Popeliniere, Book XVII; D'Aubigne, Book V, chap, v; 
Claude Haton, II, 534; De Thou, Book XLV; Liberge, Ample discourse de ce qui 
s'est fait au siege de Poitiers, 1569, new ed., 1846, by Beauchet-Felleau; Mem. de 
Jean d'Antras, ed. Cansalade and Tamizey de Larroque, 1880; see also Whitehead, 
Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral 0} France, 215, 216; Babinet, Mem. de la Soc. des 
antiq. de I'ouesi, series II, Vol. XI). The story of the siege is also related in an 
unpublished letter of Charles IX to the duke of Nevers, September 10, 1569, F. Fr., 
3,159, No. 195. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 387 

The strength of CoHgny (he had about 10,000 footmen and 
8,000 to 9,000 horse) made it impossible for Anjou to dislodge 
him by direct attack. His own strength, as appeared by a general 
muster on September 3, consisted of 1,500 French gendarmes, 
700 Italian horse, 1,000 Walloons, and 4,000 reiters, besides La 
Vallette's regiment of 400 horse — it was much reduced during the 
siege — and the duke of Longueville's and some other companies. 
Of footmen he had 6,000 French, 4,000 Swiss, 2,500 Italians, and 
2,000 Walloons. Although this army in actual numbers excelled 
that of Coligny, in reality it was considerably inferior. The troops 
were many of them without officers, the 6,000 French were drafted 
peasantry unused to the use of arms; all of them were suffering 
from hunger and many from fever. The duke of Anjou, there- 
fore, with the approval of his mother, determined to try to draw 
off Coligny from before Poitiers by a feigned attack upon Cha- 
tellerault.^ For this purpose he crossed the river Creuse on Sep- 
tember 4 and planted his artillery before the town. The honor 
of the first assault was given to the Italians, which offended the 
French, who refused to support them.^ Nevertheless a breach 
40 feet wide was made in the wall, so that the admiral, judging 
the place to be in great danger, sent 7,000 horse and 8,000 foot 
to the city's relief, September 7. It was fatal impatience on Colig- 
ny's part, for the action relieved Poitiers from the danger of being 
taken. 

There was now no other recourse for the Huguenots except to 
give battle. But Coligny was unwilling to do this at once, desiring to 
wait until the devastation of the country round about still further 
reduced Anjou's forces. In the interval he withdrew across the 
Vienne. But the mercenaries in both armies clamored for battle, 
for there was great want of money on both sides, the King's Swiss 
being unpaid for three months, the reiters five, the admiral's also 
being behindhand for three months' wages.^ 

1 Catherine de Medici to the duke of Anjou: approving of his false attack upon 
Chatellerau'.t (see Appendix XVIII), not published in the Correspondance. 

2 Neg. Tosc, III, 595. 

3 Both La Noue, chap, xxvi, and D'Aubigne, III, 119, emphasize the condition 
of the army. 



388 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

On September 30, at Moncontour, the two armies clashed in a 
prehminary engagement. But three days later on Monday, Octo- 
ber 3, 1569, the real battle was joined. It must have been an 
impressive and thrilling sight before the conflict began. In the 
Huguenot army the preachers moved about encouraging the men, 
who sang the solemn psalms of the Calvinist worship with fervor. 
Across the plain, the Swiss and Germans in the royal host, after 
the German fashion, knelt and kissed the ground.^ 




BATTLE OF MONCONTOUR, OCTOBER 3, 1569 
(Tortorel and Perissin) 

At the first shock it seemed as if the Huguenots would win, 
and they cried in exaltation, "Victory, victory! The Evangel has 
won the victory and has vanquished the mass of the popes. Down 
with the Papists!"^ The admiral began the fray by charging 
Anjou's center with 2,000 reiters and such French gendarmes 
as he had, but was himself attacked on the flank by the duke of 
Aumale and Villars so furiously that he was compelled to fall back. 

^ The custom of kissing the ground at the moment of charging the enemy 
seems to have been peculiar to the Swiss and the Germans (D'Aubigne, Book V, 
chap, xvii, 120; Brantome, VI, 221 and 522). 

2 Claude Haton, II, 581. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 389 

The Protestant infantry which had followed the horse into the 
battle, was thus left unsustained, and when the duke of Guise's 
light horse charged, the lansquenets broke in flight, abandoning 
the artillery. In the midst of the melee various companies of 
reiters, seeing the battle lost, ran to their baggage, seized their 
most valuable effects, and decamped in haste. Mansfeldt's reiters 
alone fought well; the others were of slight service. Matters were 
little better with the hirelings of the King. Many of the leaders 
on both sides were injured in the course of the battle; Guise in 
the hand and foot, Bassompierre, a German captain destined to 
become a very prominent man at court, in both arms; Anjou was 
borne to the ground off his horse but escaped injury; Coligny was 
hurt in the face by a pistol-ball. Among the Catholic dead was 
Montbrun, captain of the Swiss guard. He was haughty and 
cruel, and a despot with his men, but it is to his credit that he 
sought to prevent the soldiery from abusing the peasantry. ' The 
most of the Huguenot dead w^ere the German reiters and lansque- 
nets, many of whom were killed by their Catholic compatriots 
or the Swiss, who distinguished themselves by their ferocity.^ The 
fight endured for four hours, from 11 until 3 o'clock, at the end 
of which time the forces of Anjou overthrew the admiral, routed 
both his horse and foot, and captured his artillery and baggage. 
But for the good fortune that some of Coligny's horse intercepted 
a treasurer of the King coming out of Limousin with 30,000 francs, 
the distribution of which among his reiters quieted their murmurs, 
Coligny might have been all but deserted by the German horse. ^ 
As it was, he was able to fall back on Niort and thence make his 
retreat to the far south. 4 

Fortunately for the Huguenots, the enemy did not attempt 
pursuit of them, but instead undertook the siege of St. Jean-d'An- 
gely, which lay directly in the way southward, to the disgust of the 

I Claude Haton, II, 585. 2 Ibid., 582. 

3 La Noue, chap. xxvi. Both Henry and Louis of Nassau were in this 
engagement, the latter having quitted his university studies for war. — Languet, Epist. 
seer., I, 117; Archives de la maison d^ Orange-Nassau, III, 323. 

4 Jean de Serres, 526, 527. See the letter of Norris, December 19, 1569, 
Appendix XIX. 



39° THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

liberal marshal Cosse and even Tavannes, who urged that the 
King, in the light of this great victory, might now make peace with 
good grace, ^ Others, considering the strength of St. Jean-d'Angely 
thought that the war would be protracted into the depth of winter 
and that the capture of St. Jean-d'Angely would be of small impor- 
tance while La Rochelle still remained. Instead of accepting the 
advice, the government hardened its policy. A reward of 50,000 
crowns was offered for the head of Coligny,^ 600,000 francs were 
distributed among the soldiers and 300,000 sent into Germany 
to make a new levy against the spring. ^ 

On October 16 Charles IX arrived before St. Jean-d'Angely 
and beheld the greatest part of the royal troops ranged in order 
of battle. Anticipating a desperate resistance upon the part of 
those in the city, the King's infantry requested to be equipped 
with the gendarmes' cuirasses. One incident will illustrate the 
desperate valor of the besieged. On the night of October 21 they 
made a sortie, entered the enemy's trenches, slew twenty men, 
took two ensigns prisoner, and all the arms they found in the 
corps de garde, and returned into the town. The Protestant gar- 
rison was not over 1,500 men, but in spite of the odds against him 
(he had no artillery except falconets and muskets, while Anjou 
had eleven guns, great and small), the Huguenot commander, 
Pilles, refused to surrender. Instead, when the governor of the 
town urged him to surrender rather than make resistance, the 
desperate captain had him hanged and his body cast into the river. 
The attack upon St. Jean-d'Angely opened on October 25, but 

I Delaborde, III; 162. 

^ Mem. de Conde, I, 207; D'Aubigne, III, 113, 114; Arch, cur., series I, 
VI, 875. Pius V's letter of felicitation to the queen mother, October 17, 1569, 
characterizes Coligny as "hominem unum omnium fallacissimum, execrandaeque 
memoriae, Gasparem de Coligny, qui se pro istius regni admirante gerit." — 
Potter, Pie V, 67, ed. Gouban, Book III, letter 43, -p. 236. The admiral's 
office had been declared vacant on July 15, 1569 (Coll. Godefroy, CCLVII, 
No. 69). 

3 C. S. P. For., Nos. 456, 459, 464, 486, October 5, 6, 10, 27, 1569. This 
was far from paying the reiters what the government owed them. They had been 
serving for thirteen months and received pay but for three; 2,000,000 crowns were 
still owing {ibid., No. 543, December 19, 1569). 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 391 

although the wall was badly battered, no sufficient breach was 
made for days. The town resisted every attack until December 2, 
when it at last surrendered.^ 

Yet in spite of the double victory of Moncontour and at St. 
Jean-d'Angely, hard experience was proving the wisdom of the 
course advised by Tavannes and Cosse. The King was without 
money to pay the Swiss and the reiters who threatened to mutiny 
at any minute. The country round about the army was so 
denuded that there was great misery for want of food and multi- 
tudes of the soldiers fell sick.^ Finally, on November 24, in a 
sitting of the King's council, Charles IX was formally petitioned 
by certain of its members to make peace overtures to his revolted 
subjects, 2 and expressed his willingness to comply with the request. 

The hand of the government was forced by events; the coura- 
geous resistance of St. Jean-d'Angely, Montluc's action in resigning 
his commission, and the growing strength of the Reformed among 
the southern "viscounts," made the crown think eagerly of peace. 
As an earnest of this purpose, the King sent the liberal marshal 
Cosse in company with De Losses, the new captain of the Scotch 
Guard, to La Rochelle to confer with the queen of Navarre and La 
Rochefoucault. But Jeanne d'Albret was not minded to use haste, 
to which the marshal meaningly rejoined that "there were many 
of rank in the Protestant army who would not give her that advice. ""* 
Yet even if she had wanted to, the queen of Navarre could not have 
hastened a settlement. For at this time there was a real division 
of opinion existing between the Huguenot nobles and the people 
of the Huguenot towns like St. Jean-d'Angely and La Rochelle. The 
former class were weary of war and wanted to return to their 
homes and were in favor of peace and inclined to make their own 
terms, even to the extent of ignoring the claims of their coreligionists 

1 On the resistance of St. Jean-d'Angely see D'Aubigne, Book V, chap, xix; 
La Noue, chap, xxvii; La Popeliniere, Book XX. 

2 Ibid., No. 511, November 21, 1569. Both the duke of Alenfon and the 
princess Marguerite, Henry IV's future wife, were among the number. The 
disease was smallpox (ibid., No. 502, November 3, No. 543, December 19, 1569) . 

3 Delaborde, III, 72; Neg. Tosc, III, 608. 

4 C. S. P. For., Nos. 514, 515, 576, November 24, 25, 1569. 



392 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of the towns. The latter felt aggrieved at seeing themselves thus 
deserted, when they had done so much to maintain the general 
cause of the Huguenots, not merely in contributing money but 
by making such heroic resistance as that of the people of St. Jean- 
d'Angely, and Jeanne D'Albret sympathized with them. She 
would not listen to talk of peace, being firmly convinced that it 
was but another ruse, like that at Longjumeau, and resolutely 
declared that there would be time enough to consider terms of 
peace when their forces were more equal; that nothing short of 
the free exercise of the religion as granted by former edicts would 
avail; that even if all the Huguenot nobles consented to the terms, 
her own signature and that of Henry of Navarre would never be 
affixed to any half-way terms of pacification.^ But at last, after 
long debate, the queen of Navarre yielded, and sent the admiral's 
future son-in-law, Teligny, who had conferred with Coligny, to 
the King to request "a good assured and inviolable peace," ^ prob- 
ably being in part influenced by the treatment of St. Jean-d'Ange- 
ly, whose garrison was suffered to march out, bag and baggage, 
with colors flying. The Huguenots demanded liberty of con- 
science, the restitution of their goods, estates, and offices to those 
of the religion, and the reversal of all sentences against them, 
together with guaranties for the observance of the articles.^ 

1 C. S. P., For., November 24, 1569, Jeanne d'Albret to the princes of Navarre 
and Conde. Not in Rochambeau, Lettres d'Antoine de Bourbon et de Jehanne 
d'Albret. 

2 An awkward delay occurred at this time owing to the fact that Teligny's 
safe-conduct provided for his coming to the King, but made no statement as to his 
departure. On December 14 the queen of Navarre and her son demanded "un 
passe-port plus ample" from the King. When it came with a revised form, nego- 
tiations were resumed {Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 263, note; C. S. 
P. For., No. 643, January, 1570). For details of these protracted negotiations see 
La Popeliniere, Book XXII; Delaborde, III, 176 ff.). In Appendix XX will be 
found a long document consisting of a great number of articles proposed by the 
queen of Navarre, the princes of Navarre and Conde, and the other chiefs of the 
Huguenot party, for the pacification of France, and divided under the heads of 
religion, restitution of goods and estates, council and justice, arms, and finances., 
together with measures to be taken to insure the performance of the edict 
(February 4, 1570). 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 644, January 1570, articles sent by the queen of Navarre 
to the King. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 393 

The essential issue, and that which protracted the debate so 
long was the demand for chamhres mi-parties,^ and that the crown 
give over certain cities into the hands of the Huguenots to be gar- 
risoned and governed by them alone. On February 3, 1570, the 
King replied, promising to grant amnesty for the past, the restora- 
tion of their estates and offices to the Huguenots, the expulsion of 
the reiters, with liberty of the religion within private dwelhngs 
and in two towns which he would appoint.^ But Jeanne d'Albret, 
who conducted the negotiations for the Huguenots, refused to be 
satisfied. In a long letter to the queen mother a week later she 
recapitulated the former negotiations at great length and com- 
plained of the government's want of good faith, especially alluding 
to the cardinal of Lorraine and the duke of Alva.^ As a matter 
of fact the government was not yet willing to give in. The cardinal 
of Lorraine still hoped to hasten forward a new levy of reiters in 
Germany when spring should open, and held out the vain hope of 
the restoration of the Three Bishoprics if the Emperor would lend 
France this assistance and stay the Protestant levies. ^ But the 
Emperor himself had something to say about the matter and 
asserted that he would not consider the proposed marriage of his 
daughter with the French King until peace was concluded in 
France.^ Aware of the Emperor's attitude, the queen of Navarre 
resolutely demanded terms of peace in conformity with the demands 
of the Huguenots.^ 

1 Hist, du Lang., V, 508, note. The parlement of Toulouse was a special 
object of criticism by the Huguenots. In the act of peace they were exempted 
from its jurisdiction. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 672, February 3, 1570; cf. R. Q. H., XLII, 112-15, copied 
from Record Office; Delaborde, Coligny, III, 180. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 682, February 10, 1570. Not in Rochambeau. 

* Ibid., No. 674, February 5, 1570. This information had been conveyed 
to Jeanne d'Albret by a packet which had been intercepted {ibid., No. 689, Feb- 
ruary 17, 1570). 

5 Waddington, "La France et les Protestants allemands sous Charles IX et 
Henri III," Revue Hist., XLII, 256 ff. 

6 The queen of Navarre to Charles IX. Has received his letter and com- 
municated his reply to her son and nephew, and the noblemen who are with them. 
Assures him that it is impossible for them to live without the free exercise of their 



394 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The arguments of peace urged by the marshal Cosse and others 
who shared his thought had less influence upon the King and his 
counselors as the storm of war drove off toward the south, ^ to the 
elation of Pius V, who overwhelmed Charles IX with protests 
against pacification.^ South of the Loire the principal interest 
of the third civil war is attached to the doings of that famous group 
of Huguenot warriors known as the "viscounts," with whom 
Coligny had failed to connect before the battle of Jarnac. A brief 
account of the earlier achievements of this group, who sometimes 
fought together, sometimes separately, and had three or four 
thousand footmen and three or four hundred horsemen in their com- 
mand, ^ is necessary at this point. There were ten of these cap- 
tains: Bernard Roger de Cominges, vicomte de Bruniquel; 
Bertrand de Rabastenis, vicomte de Paulin; Antoine de Raba- 
stenis, vicomte de Montclaire; the vicomte de Montaigu; the 
vicomte de Caumont ; the vicomte de Parat ; Geraud de Lomagne, 
vicomte de Sevignac (near Beaucaire), a brother of Terride, 
who was a Catholic and implicated with Montluc in the pro- 
ject to deliver Guyenne to the King of Spain ;4 the vicomte 
d'Arpajon; the vicomte de Rapin; and the vicomte de Gour- 
don.5 Three of these, and the most conspicuous, save Rapin, 

religion, which in the end he will be constrained to grant, and declares that all those 
who advise him otherwise are no true subjects to him (C. 5. P. Spain, No. 683, 
February 11, 1570). Not in Rochambeau. 

1 De Thou definitely says Paris and the court were indifferent as to the fate 
of the remoter provinces so long as the war did not touch them too (Vol. VI, Book 
XLVII, p. 37)- 

2 "Compertum nobis est nullam esse Satanae cum filiis lucis communionem; 
ita inter catholicos quidem et haereticos nullam compositionem, nisi fictam fal- 
laciisque plenissimam, fieri posse pro certo habemus." — Potter, Pie V, 86 (ed. 
Gouban), Book 4, letter I, p. 269; Pius V to Charles IX, January 29, 1570. At 
p. 272 is a letter in a similar vein to the duke of Anjou, written on the same day. 

3 De Ruble, Commentaires etlettres de Montluc, VII, 184, note; V, 135; letter of 
Montluc, October 31, 1568. 

4 Ibid., IV, 335. 

s It is to be regretted that there is no monograph upon the history of these 
viscounts. It would be quite worth doing. Communay, Les Huguenots dans le 
Beam et la Navarre, and Durier, Les Huguenots en Bigorre, 1884, are valuable 
collections of documents. The sources are largely in the local archives of Upper 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 395 

the viscounts of Paulin, Bruniquel, and Arpajon were natives 
of the diocese of Albi, a stronghold of heresy from mediaeval 
times; the first had seen service in Piedmont in the reign of 
Henry II, and the ancestors of all three of them had fought against 
Ferdinand of Aragon in 1495.' The viscount of Rapin was a 
leader of the great Huguenot rising in Toulouse in 1562, and was 
made Protestant governor of Montauban in 1564 by the prince of 
Conde.^ He was so bitterly hated by the people of Toulouse that 
he was accused of wanting to destroy the city utterly and remove 
the very stones to Montauban. He had fought in the second 
civil war, but was betrayed into the hands of the magistrates of 
Toulouse and condemned and executed there on April 13, 1569, 
in defiance of the King's orders to the contrary. The Huguenots 
took terrible reprisal for this outrage, devastating the environs of 
Toulouse for leagues around, even inscribing on the ruins "Ven- 
geance de Rapin. "^ 

These four viscounts were the nucleus of the group and began 
their career in the first civil war. But save Rapin, none became 
conspicuous then. During the second war the others were drawn 
to the standard. They operated in Languedoc and Quercy at 
first, aided by the peasantry who seem to have turned toward 
them as natural enemies of the higher nobles. '^ In the summer 
and autumn of 1568 their united hosts made a mighty raid up the 
valley of the Rhone from Montauban through Rouergue and 
the Cevennes, where part of the troops crossed the Rhone under 
the viscount of Rapin and joined the Protestant army of Dauphine 
and Provence under a former lieutenant of Des Adresse. The 
rest remained in Languedoc. Later Rapin recrossed the river 

Languedoc, Guyenne, Quercy, the Agenois, and Rouergue. My information is 
gathered entirely from the two works name above and Montluc; D'Aubigne; Hist, 
du Languedoc, V; Courteault, Blaise de Montluc, Paris, 1908; and Marlet, Le comte 
de Montgomery, Paris, 1890. 

1 Hist, du Lang., V, 155, 156. 

2 De Ruble, Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, IV, 354, 399, note. 

3 Hist, du Lang., V, 501; Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, II, 399, note; 
V, 268 note. 

4 Hist, du Lang., V, 495. 



396 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

into Vivarais with the hope of joining the prince of Conde. But 
the governor of Provence, the count of Tende, aided by the viscount 
of Joyeuse, the CathoHc general in these parts, blocked his passage. 
In the midst of this plight rehef came to the viscount of Rapin in 
the person of his former comrade in arms. But at least Joyeuse 
had prevented the union of the viscounts with the prince of Conde. 

The people of Vivarais resented the occupation of the country 
by these guerilla chieftains, much as their ancestors two hundred 
years before had risen against the Free Companies during the 
reign of Charles V. The towns organized an army of their own 
and distinguished themselves by routing the viscounts upon one 
occasion. In January, 1568, the viscounts succeeded in their 
early purpose, penetrated the Catholic army and crossed the Loire 
at Blois. The relief of Orleans and their union with the prince 
of Conde before Chartres hastened the peace of Longjumeau.^ 

During the interim between the armistice of Longjumeau and 
the outbreak of the third war, the viscounts, in common with most 
of the Protestant forces of the south, seem not to have disarmed, 
but stayed in the vicinity of Montauban, the Huguenot capital 
of the far south. When war was renewed, Joyeuse and Gordes, 
governor of Dauphine, unsuccessfully tried to keep the Huguenots 
east of the Rhone from joining them in Languedoc. At Milhaud 
in Rouergue a great council of war was held at which practically 
all the Protestant fighting forces of the south save Guyenne and 
Gascony were represented. =" In conformity with the plan there 
arranged, the viscounts remained in Quercy and Languedoc while 
the main army crossed the Dordogne with the purpose of joining 
the prince of Conde. But in Perigord it was met and scattered, 
on October 25, 1568, by the duke of Montpensier and Marshal 
Brissac. The viscounts continued to operate in Languedoc against 
Joyeuse and others. The success of their activities, especially 
the destruction of Gaillac (September 8, 1568) was what led to the 

1 Hist, du Lang., V, 495, 496; La Popeliniere, Book XIII. 

2 Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 208. 

In State Papers, Foreign, Elizabeth, Vol. CXV, No. 990 is a document showing 
the provinces held by the Protestants. It is undated but the mention of the vis- 
counts in it shows that it is of this time (printed in Appendix XXI). 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 397 

revival of the league at Toulouse under the cardinal of Armagnac 
on September 12, in the cathedral of St. Etienne. The recall of 
Joyeuse with the Catholic troops of Languedoc to the north to 
assist the duke of Anjou, left a clear field in Provence and Langue- 
doc. The loss of Jarnac, March 13, 1569, where the prince of 
Conde was killed, may in part be ascribed to the fact that the vis- 
counts refused to respond to his orders for them to come to him, 
so that the united forces of Anjou and Joyeuse overwhelmed the 
Huguenots. A similar reverse befell the Protestants on June 8 
following, in the Ariege near Toulouse, where Bellegarde, the 
seneschal of Toulouse, routed the viscounts and captured the vis- 
count of Paulin, who would have suffered the fate of the viscount 
of Rapin, had not Charles IX, less for magnanimity's sake than 
to rebuke the parlement of Toulouse for violating the royal orders 
before, refused to have him delivered up to it.^ The shattered 
bands of the viscounts joined Montgomery, a leader of their own 
kind, who had been detached by Coligny from his own army, in 
the same month. 

The reason for Montgomery's appearance in the south is to be 
found in the peril threatening Beam and Navarre at this time. 
Montluc had conceived the idea that Beam might be conquered 
while its ruler was absent. The parlement of Toulouse energeti- 
cally favored the project and on November 15, 1568, had issued 
an arret placing Beam under its jurisdiction.^ In the early 
months of 1 569 efforts were made with some success to corrupt the 
captains in the Bearnais army.^ When the plan was broached to 
the duke of Anjou he enthusiastically approved it. The time was 
auspicious, for it so happened that the suggestion coincided with 
his victory at Jarnac. Exactly a week after the battle^ he 
detached the seigneur de Terride with instructions to report to 
Montluc, for the duke thought Montluc could not be spared from 

1 Hist, du Lang., V, 576, note. 

2 Bordenave, 166; Hist, du Lang., V, 575. 

3 Bordenave, Hist, de Beam et de Navarre, 268-77. 

4 Olhagaray, Histoire de Foix, de Navarre et de Beam (1609), 578, however, 
gives the date March 4. 



398 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Guyenne.' This order was a bitter disappointment to Montluc, 
who wanted to conquer Beam himself, and he ever thereafter 
cherished a hatred against Marshal Damville^ who was away from 
his government at the time with the duke of Anjou, believing 
that Damville's jealousy of him was responsible for it. This may 
very probably have been so, for, as will be seen later, the enmity 
between the two was extreme. 

Terride's campaign began well. One by one, in rapid order, 
the fortified towns of Beam collapsed before him — Pontacq, Mor- 
laas, Orthez, Sauveterre, and Pau — the birthplace of Henry of 
Navarre, while the country round about was wasted with fire and 
sword. The queen of Navarre's lieutenant was driven to find 
refuge in Navarrens, whose chateau, reputed to be impregnable, 
had been built by Henri d'Albret during his enterprises against 
Spain. On April 27, 1569, Terride began the siege of the castle 
of Navarrens.3 

Montgomery, who arrived at Castres on June 21^ bearing the 
double commission of the tw^o Protestant princes, ^ in the course 
of four weeks found himself in the neighborhood of Toulouse and 
at the head of the united forces of the viscounts and some levies 
made in Albigeois. Montgomery's energy amazed Montluc who 
was soldier enough to give his enemy credit for really wonderful 
achievement. He had never been in the country before and all the 
forces he had brought with him were three score and ten horses, and 
he had no other forces but those of the viscounts in the beginning. 
He had to cross the Garonne river, too, the entire length of which 

1 Bordenave, Histoire de Beam et de Navarre, 216. 

2 Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 245. 

3 In F. Fr.; 15,558, fol. 293, is a memoir of Jean de Montluc to the King, of 
July, 1569, enumerating the munitions and provisions of the army before Navarrens. 

4 Mem. de Caches, 90. 

5 I do not know that the actual text of this joint commission is known. Mont- 
gomery, in his letter at this time styled himself as follows: Lieutenant-general du 
roy en Guyenne, despuis la couste de la Dordoigne jusques aux Pyrenees, en 
I'absence et sous I'autorite de messeigneurs les princes de Navarre et de Conde, 
lieutenant et protecteur de Sa Majeste, conservateur de ses edits et aussi lieutenant- 
general de la reine de Navarre en son comte de Bigorre! — De Ruble, Commen- 
taires et lettres de Montluc, III, 266, note. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 399 

was watched by spies. The behef of the CathoHc captains in Lan- 
guedoc was that Montgomery intended to organize the defense 
of the places the Protestants were possessed of, and this erroneous 
opinion seems to have been given currency by the Huguenots 
themselves, "who had ever that quality to conceal their designs 
better than we," testifies Montluc. "They are a people that 
rarely discover their counsels, and that is the reason why their 
enterprises seldom fail of taking effect." 

By rapid marching Montgomery reached Navarrens incredibly 
soon. Terride, his soldiers wearied out by a siege which had 
endured for three months and a half in midsummer, loaded with 
spoil, Hcentious and mutinous to an extent that shamed even the 
reiters, abandoned the siege and fell back on Orthez. But the 
city was not proof against the attacks of the viscounts. In broad 
daylight the walls were carried par escalade. On x'Vugust 13, 
Terride, who had taken refuge in the castle with so much haste 
that he was without provisions or munitions, surrendered. He 
himself was spared by Montgomery for the purpose of being 
exchanged for the latter's brother, but died before the transfer was 
made. His captains, almost to a man, were put to death. Some 
of these were former officers in the Bearnais army and were legally 
guilty of treason, but the real motive of Montgomery was reprisal 
for the ravages done by Terride's army. At the beginning of the 
war the queen's lieutenant, the heroic baron de Larboust, either 
in the hope of sparing Beam, or anticipating what would be meted 
out again, had proposed to neutralize Beam, putting it into the 
custody of the count de Grammont, even offering to oppose Mont- 
gomery if it were done. Terride refused and paid the price of 
his wilfulness and bigotry. Beam was saved by Montgomery, 
in the most brilliant and most honorable campaign of his checkered 
career. ^ 

I Montgomery's itinerary is printed in Appendix XXII. 

The two parts of Montgomery's expedition south of the Dordogne, first the 
union with the viscounts, and second, the campaign against Terride are to be dis- 
tinguished, although they have been much confounded. 

The sources and authorities for the history of this brief war are: Communay, 
Les Huguenots dans le Beam ei la Navarre; Durier, Les Huguenots en Bigorre; 



400 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The Catholic failure to conquer Beam goaded Montluc's slum- 
bering hatred of Damville to fury, for he believed the utter collapse 
of the Protestant cause would have followed the conquest.' He 
blamed Damville for it, asserting that Terride's overthrow was 
due to his slowness. But the marshal had had great difficulty 
in returning to his government. The Huguenots were in full 
possession of Quercy and the Albigeois, and the region around 
Toulouse was so much overrun by them that Damville was unable 
to reach Toulouse until the end of June.^ It took Montgomery 
even with the viscounts immediately at hand, nearly five weeks 
(June 2i-July 27) to prepare for the relief of Navarrens, though 
the desperate condition of things there required haste, and with 
the entire civil as well as military burden of Languedoc upon him, 
a burden that necessarily had accumulated, too, during his absence, 
Damville could hardly be expected, with justice, to have got 
ready to go against Montgomery before the middle of August, 
by which time the siege of Navarrens was over. The truth is, 
Montluc and Damville radically disagreed as to the policy to 
be pursued in the south. Montluc's patent covered the territory 
of Guyenne only. But Montluc, with a mere soldier's disregard 
for forms of law, believed that it was a soldier's duty to go where 
the need was greatest. He made the proposal that when Dam- 
ville should have won a town in Languedoc he would come to attack 
another in Guyenne. To this the marshal demurred, asserting 

Bordenave, Hist, de Beam et de Navarre, Book VII; Montluc. Comment, et Lettres, 
III, Book VII, pp. 254-89, and his letters for September, 1569 in Vol. V, pp. 164 £f.; 
D'AubignC; Book V, chap, xiv; La Popeliniere, Book XVIII; Hist, du Lang., 
V, 578-87; Dupleix, Histoire de France— his father was one of Montluc's 
captains and for some time marshal of the camp to Biron in Guyenne; Marlet, 
Le comte de Montgomery; Courteault, Blaise de Montluc, chap. xi. The baron de 
Ruble, ed. Montluc, V, 211, note, says: "Les documents inedits sont presque 
innombrables. Outre les lettres conservees a la Bibliotheque Nationale, prin- 
cipalement dans la collection Harlay, St. Germain, vol. 323 et suivants, nous cite- 
rons, aux archives de Pau la serie B 952 a 958: les registres consulaires d'Auch, 
les registres de Larcher aux archives de Tarbes, les registres consulaires de Bag- 
neres-de-Bigorre." The local archives of Bigorre contain many of Montgomery's 
letters. Some of them have been published in Arch, de la Gascogne, VI. 

' Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 286. 

2 Hist, du Languedoc, V, 164. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 401 

that it was his duty to attempt to recover what had been lost in 
his government and pointed to his commission. Montluc derided 
the plea and accused Damville of being so proud "a grand lord, 
son to a constable and a marshal of France," that he would not 
work with a poor gentlemen.' 

In the late summer (1569) Montgomery victoriously returned 
from Beam, having reached the highest point of his reputation. 
Within six weeks he had gathered an army, marched leagues through 
a strange and hostile country, crossed the Garonne and raised a 
siege against equal forces, and' turned the Catholic conquest of 
Beam into defeat. It seemed a dream both to friend and foe. 

I Damville ignored the railings of Montluc until November, when he wrote 
to the King in vindication of himself, giving a full account of their campaign against 
Montgomery (De Ruble, Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, V, 243-57, notes; Coll. 
Godefroy, CCLVII, Nos. 75 and 84. The first is printed in Archives de la Gironde, 

II, 148; Hist, du Lang., V, 521, note 2; the latter is given in tome XII, preuves, 
note 304). Damville seems to have anticipated an inquiry, for he carefully laid 
asideallofMontluc's letters from May 26 to October 22, 1569. On February 27, 1570, 
Damville sent the King a stinging indictment of Montluc's course. In it he de- 
clared Montluc was a rash impostor and accused him of forcing the people of 
Guyenne to pay unjust ransoms; of violating women; of misusing public moneys; 
and asserted that he courted investigation of his own conduct (De Ruble, Montluc, 

III, 394; V, 269, and notes; Hist, du Lang., V, 529, note 3; the letter was first pub- 
lished by Le Laboureur in the Additions to Castelnau, II, 130, from a copy in the 
Dupuy Coll., Vol. 755. M. Tamizey de Larroque discovered the original in the 
Coll. Godefroy in the Bib. de I'Institut). Most men of the time, however, deplored 
the contest between these two Catholic chiefs of the south, without taking sides 
(see Archives de la Gironde, II, 148). Montluc's Spanish spy, Bardaxi, naturally 
reproaches Damville (K. 1,574, No. 154). Probably no judgment may fairly be 
pronounced until all the sources have been carefully examined. A life of Damville 
is a work sorely needed; it is a rich subject for some historical student. 

The recent work of M. Courteault, Blaise de Montluc, 538-40, 551-53, 
557-59, goes at length into this feud between Montluc and Damville. In the main 
the author sides with the marshal — "Damville acceptait les faits accomplis et ne 
jugeait pas utile de combattre Mongonmery" (p. 551). He declares that "pru- 
demmement, il [Montluc] a passe dans son hvre ce grave incident sous silence" 
(P- 551)- He admits, however, that if the King had ordered an investigation 
Damville would have had something to answer for (p. 559). 

There are numerous letters of Charles IX to Montluc in the St. Petersburg 
archives. In them Charles harps upon the disagreeable conduct of Montluc to- 
ward Jeanne d'Albret, and tries at one and the same time to repress the queen's 
indefatigable propaganda lest it anger Spain, and to restrain Montluc because of 
his outrageous conduct and the illustrious blood of the queen of Navarre (La 



402 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Nobly did his enemy say: "In all the wars there never was per- 
formed a more notable exploit." If Montgomery had failed, 
Coligny would have had no place to retire to after the loss of Mon- 
contour. For he came from that field of Protestant overthrow 
with the relics of an army only, mostly gentry and reiters, for the 
infantry was almost all cut to pieces or captured, without baggage, 
without money, even the horses needing to be reshod. It was well 
that the admiral could throw himself into the arms of Montgomery 
and the viscounts who enriched him with the spirit of their success 
and drew thousands, literally, to the Huguenot standard by the 
magic of their achievements. His following increased so rapidly 
that by the time he reached Montpellier he again had between ten 
and twelve thousand men. ^ On January 3, 1 570, Coligny and Mont- 
gomery united their forces. The dissension between Montluc^ 
and Damville gave them and the viscounts almost unrestrained 

Ferriere. Rapport, 22.) Letters of the marshal Montmorency and of marshal 
Damville are also in this volume. Those of the latter cover the history of all the 
campaigns of Montgomery in Beam. He condemns Montluc for the death of 
Terride. The marshal's laconic language is strikingly in contrast with Montluc's 
rhetorical complaint (La Ferriere, Rapport, 44). If we may believe Brantome, 
"dans toutes les guerres Montluc gagna la piece d'argent; auparavant il n'avoit 
pas grandes finances, et se trouva avoir dans ses coffres cent mille escus." Charles 
IX once sharply reminded Montluc in a letter of November, 1562, that he was 
getting 500 livres per month for his table. (La Ferriere, Blaise de Montluc d'apres 
sa correspondance inedite, Mem. lus a la Sorbonne, 1864.) 

1 Coligny was quick to seize the opportunity afforded in the south to continue 
the war there until the crown came to terms with the Huguenots. After the King's 
capture of St. Jean-d'Angely, Coligny crossed the Loire to join Montgomery (cf. 
Delaborde. Ill, 157, 161, 169, 170; Montluc, III, 347, October; C. S. P. For., 
No. 577, December, 1569; Letters from La Rochelle to the cardinal of Chatillon). 
The cardinal has received letters from his brother the admiral, dated from Montau- 
ban November 22, informing him that the princes are well, that their army is in- 
creasing, that the reiters are content and have received pay, and that there is no 
difficulty in joining with Montgomery and the viscounts. Their army will consist 
of 6,500 horse and 12,000 arquebusiers. For the proclamation issued from 
Montauban see Appendix XXIII. In C. S. P. For., No. 667, January, 1570, 
is an extract of a letter from La Rochelle, describing the position of the armies of the 
admiral and the count of Montgomery, who are on either bank of the Garonne, 
and in good spirits and health. 

2 De Ruble, Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, V, 263, 264. * Letter of 
Montluc to Charles IX, January 9, 1570. He writes almost broken hearted. 







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THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 403 

freedom in Upper Gascony and Languedoc, where they grew 
enormously rich on the spoils of war, and carried their depredations 
to the very walls of Toulouse which was actually invested from 
January 22 to February 20, 1570.^ 

When the news of Terride's downfall was known to Montluc 
he made overtures to Damville in spite of his resentment. A 
council of war was held at Auch, but instead of coming himself 
the marshal sent Joyeuse to say that he thought it his duty to pass 
his time in liis own government, considering the charge the country 
was under to sustain the war. It is interesting to observe the 
ancient ideas of provincial separation and autonomy asserting 
themselves at this time. In vain Montluc argued that the real 
enemy was in Guyenne and that the local hostility of the Hugue- 
nots in Languedoc was a little matter in comparison; that all 
Catholics were equally the King's subjects and that the country 
was the King's.^ Joyeuse answered that the estates of Languedoc 
would not pay for Montluc's army unless he employed their money 
in recovering the places in their province. The decision aban- 
doned Guyenne, leaving it alone and single handed, for the King's 
forces were engaged in the protracted siege of St. Jean-d'Angely 
and could not come to its relief. " J'ay tousjours ouy dire que plus 
pies est la chemise que la robbe," said Montluc satirically.^ 

The old man was on the point of discharging his army and retir- 
ing to Libourne or Agen, but the duty of a soldier forbade him. If 
he now abandoned the open country in so critical a condition, it 
would ever have been a reproach to him. He thought better of 
himself and attacked Mont-de-Marsan instead, where he placated 

1 So great was the desolation inflicted that the King was obliged to remit the 
taille in Agenois {Arch, municip. d'Agen reg. consul., fol. 262). The Protestants 
were so encouraged that even those living in Agen, Montluc's own town, dared to 
revolt {Bull, du Com. de la langue et de I'hist. de France, I, 478; Reg. munic. 
d'Agen, fol. 254). An interesting comparison might be made between the rules for 
the government of the camp issued by Coligny at this time — they are in K. 1,575, 
No. 7 — and those issued by the prince of Conde at Orleans, in April, 1562. For 
an example of the severe discipline in the Protestant army see Claude Haton II 
568; cf. De Thou, Book XXX. 

2 De Ruble, Commentaires et leltres de Montluc, III, 74. 

3 Ibid., 314. 



404 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

his outraged feelings by refusing the petition of the garrison to 
capitulate and secretly gave orders for the massacre of the entire 
number save the captain, Favas.' This feat of arms insured the 
future of Gascony and the Landes, for the city served as a granary 
for all the surrounding country from whence, however, to the 
detriment of France, much grain was exported to Spain. ^ After 
this exploit, feehng the impossibihty of maintaining his forces in 
the field, Montluc disbanded his army, sending his son to Lectoure 
and himself retiring to Agen. It goaded him to the quick that the 
crown approved throughout of Damville's conduct and either 
ignored his own complaints, or criticized him for what he had done. 
"I was born under a planet to be ever subject to calumny," he 
growled. "Age deprives a man of his heat: for in my younger 
days the greatest prince upon earth could not have made me 
swallow such a pill." 

It may have been that Damville had friends at court and Mont- 
luc none; it may have been that the marshal's pride of long descent 
made him indifferent or even contemptuous of Montluc in some 
degree. But if we look closely at things it is evident that the 
spirit of provincial separation was the fundamental source of the 
difficulty between them. This spirit penetrated to the very bottom. 
Both Montluc and Damville were making war with men levied 
from the country in which they were — ^with militia instead of regu- 
lar troops. The consequence of this was that every man in the 
host had an eye to the welfare of his family or his friends instead of 
to the King's business; moreover, many had relatives or friends 
with the enemy, which made them fight reluctantly; finally, they 
were ill-paid and had to subsist on plunder, which debauched 
discipline. The true remedy would have been for Charles IX to 
have raised the useless siege of St.-Jean-d' Angely and to have come 

1 De Ruble, op. cit.. Ill, 315-29; Montluc's sangfroid is amazing as he writes. 

2 Delaborde, III, 157, 161, 169, 170. Early in 1569 Montluc sent a complaint 
to Charles IX protesting against this export of grain. This trade redounded to the 
advantage of the commander of the Gascon coast, who was a brother of the bishop 
of Agen, and Montluc's complaint gave rise to an acrimonious correspondence 
preserved in Coll. Harley St. Germain, No. 323, which throws some light on the 
interesting question of trade in the sixteenth century (see Commentaires el lettres de 
Montluc, III, 395, note). 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 405 

in person into the southland, where the authority of the King '. 
might have overcome the local forces of separation; and where the 
regulars would have plied war as a trade, as the circumstances 
demanded. 

The Catholics of the south had an example before their eyes 
in the reiters with the admiral, of the efficiency of regular troops 
over local forces. Coligny owxd his future to them and Mont- 
gomery. The way the reiters made war excited the admiration of 
trained soldiers like Montluc. They so barricaded the villages 
in which they quartered themselves that nothing was to be got by 
assault and in the open country they were always mounted at the 
least alarm. It was very hard to surprise them. They were 
careful of their horses and arms and so terrible in action ''that 
a man could see nothing but fire and steel." The very grooms 
fought.^ 

The reverses experienced at Poitiers, Moncontour, and St. Jean- 
d'Angely had not been fatal to the Protestants. In the middle of 
December Coligny wrote to the captain of La Charite that he felt 
ready to resume the offensive in the spring, having in La Rochelle, 
Cognac, Angouleme, Montauban, Castres, La Charite, and Mont- 
pellier a chain of impregnable fortresses extending from the sea- 
board clear to the heart of France, and controlhng the Loire. ^ 
A survey of the map will show the strength of the Huguenots in 
this part of France. All of Provence and Lower Languedoc was 
in full control of the Protestants, Montauban, Albi, and Castres, 
constituting a line of defense on the west. In Upper Languedoc 
they were not so strong and the condition of the Catholics was 
less precarious, since Toulouse, Auch, Agen, and Cahors, formed 
a quadrilateral in the very center. The Huguenots controlled 
many of the lesser towns, so that Montluc complained that time 
and again he had to pass through their hands "and for the least 
affair trot up and down with great trouble from city to city. Would 
to God that, as they do in Spain, we had made our constant 

1 See Montluc's observations in III, 368, 369. He gives a spirited account 
on p. 367 of an attack of the reiters on Monbrun, describing the way they fought 
in the close quarters of a town. ' 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 543, December 19, 1569. 



4o6 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

' abode in the good towns ; we had then both more riches and more 
authority."^ 

Guyenne was safely Catholic if it could continue to hold its 
own; for this important fact Montluc richly deserves credit.^ 
But Guyenne, Gascony, and Upper Languedoc were isolated 
from the Catholic north by a broad Protestant strip running south- 
eastward from La Rochelle to Montpellier through Saintes, Cognac, 
Angouleme, Chalais, Bergerac, Montauban, Albi, Castres, Beziers, 
and Montpellier, which united Saintonge on the seaboard with 
Provence and Dauphine. But, on the other hand. Beam was 
separated from the main trunk of Calvinism and was not yet safe, 
in spite of Montgomery's success, unless it were bound to the main 
trunk. The Huguenot leaders realized this, and one of Coligny's 
adroitest strokes, after Moncontour, was the seizure of Port-Ste. 
Marie, below Agen on the Garonne, with the aid of the German 
reiters.3 The capture of this place (November 29, 1569) insured 
the passage of the Garonne to the Huguenots'^ and accomplished 
for those of the far south what the possession of La Charite insured 
to those of central France, for it bridged the Garonne. Later, 
when Bernard d'Astarac, baron de Martamot, early in the follow 
ing January (1570) recovered Tarbes^ on the Adour, the Huguenots 
had a chain of fortresses running straight north from Beam through 
Condom and Nerac to Bergerac and Angouleme, and Catholic 
Gascony and Guyenne were cut in twain. 

Montluc, having fortified Agen, the capture of which would 
have been another disaster to the Catholics, then set to work to con- 
trive how to break the bridge of boats which Coligny had con- 
structed . A mason who had once built a floating mill for the marquis 
de Villars above Port-Ste. Marie came to him and suggested load- 
ing the mill with stone, cutting it loose, and letting it float down 
stream with the hope of breaking the bridge. The Garonne at this 

1 Ruble, Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 262. 

2 He took it long before historians attributed the honor to him (ibid., 382). 

3 Ibid., 366. 

4 "II devoit considerer I'importance de la place qui estoit sur deux rivieres." — 
Ibid. 

5 Ibid., V, 266. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 407 

time was swollen with winter rains.' The leaders were skeptical 
of the scheme, as the bridge was known to be protected by heavy 
cables above stream. But the captain Thodeas, an engineer 
with Montluc, supported the mason, after secretly surveying the 
structure. The novel battering-ram accomplished the work 
intended. Shortly before midnight the mill was loosed from its 
moorings, one of the soldiers being drowned in unchaining it. 
Coligny's artillery, when it loomed through the darkness, made 
a desperate attempt to sink it by fire from the batteries at either 
end of the bridge, but in vain. The mill struck the bridge with 
such a shock that cables, chains, and boats all went to pieces with 
a crash. Two of the boats went down as far as St. Macaire and 
some, it was said, were picked up as far down as Bordeaux.^ 

The destruction of the bridge was a heavy blow to the Protes- 
tants for it cut their forces into two parts. Besides Montgomery, 
very many of the reiters were caught on that side of the river toward 
Gascony. But Coligny's enterprise robbed adversity of its sting. 
He improvised a bridge of two boats, upon which five or six horses 
could be carried at once, the boats being hauled by cable, after 
the Italian manner. It required an hour and a half to go and 
return, yet at last, with great pains and difficulty the whole com- 
pany of reiters was got across stream. Montluc had proposed 
to Candale and La Valette that an attack be made upon Mont- 
gomery who was quartered at Condom, south of Nerac. But 
they were so slow in responding that Montgomery, too, was able 
to pass over, first his horse and then his foot, one after the other, 
it requiring five or six days for all his forces to make the transit.^ 

But the admiral and Montgomery followed up this clever deed 
by a blunder so bad that the Reformed suffered for it for years 
afterward, and were saved from losing Beam, perhaps, as they 
had almost lost it before, by the intervention of the Peace of St. 

1 All this happened on the night of December 15 and 16 {Commeniaires et 
lettres de Montluc, III, 384, 385). De Thou, V, Book XLV, 666-68, and Popeli- 
niere, Book XXII, both tell the tale. A learned dissertation in Hist, du Lang., 
XII, note 5, clears up a number of obscure points in these accounts. 

2 The last of them got across by January 3, 1570 {Montluc, III, 384-91, and 
his letter of January 9, in V, 261-64). 



4o8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Germain. Coligny's original plan was to pass the rest of the winter 
and until harvest in Gascony and Guyenne, with Port-Ste. Marie 
as his base and to have heavy artillery brought from the fortresses 
of Beam with which to take all the towns upon the Garonne as 
far as Bordeaux. The bridge assured them control of two of the 
richest provinces of France, for they were absolute masters of the 
field. By this means Bordeaux would have been at their mercy, 
for the sea power of the Huguenots at Blaye' was sufficient to close 
the city upon the sea side. It could not have held out for more 
than three months, for already corn was selling there at ten livres 
per sack. Bordeaux itself was rich and strong but situated in a 
barren country, so that, deprived of the Garonne and Dordogne, 
it could presently be reduced to famine. As for the Protestant 
army it would have fared well. The lesser towns like Libourne 
and Lectoure must inevitably have succumbed with their stores, 
and the viscounts were in full possession of Comenge and Lou- 
maigne, the most fertile counties of ail Guyenne. There were 
numerous stores of grain here, for it was a practice of the dealers 
and even gentlemen, to accumulate three or four years' store in 
anticipation of a dear year. Had the Huguenots once got Bordeaux 
in their clutches, they might have boasted that they had the best 
and strongest angle of the kingdom, both by land and sea, com- 
manding five navigable rivers. The bridges over the Charente at 
Saintes and Cognac, being in their hands, no one could pass from 
Saintonge to Bordeaux where La Noue lay, " as valiant a man as 
any that ever was in France." The river system of the southwest 
— the Charente, He, Dordogne, Lot, and Garonne — could have 
been made to bind the whole region into a compact whole if this 
plan had been carred out, and from behind these natural barriers 
the Protestants might have defied all the King's armies. 

Yet although Coligny's army tasted of Bordeaux wine and his 
reiters watered their horses in the Garonne, he did not go on. He 
failed to see that the most vital need of the Huguenots was to gain 
complete mastery of the sea. This is what La Noue perceived and 
Coligny did not. After the loss of Rouen they had but one 

I For a description of Blaye see Rel. ven., I, 22, 23. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 409 

important port town at their command, La Rochelle, which 
the blunders of the government in the second civil war had per- 
mitted the Protestants to make their own, on which depended 
Brouage, reputed the fairest and most commodious haven in all 
the kingdom, and the chief staple for salt in all the southwest.^ 
The sequel to such a course, it is true, must probably have been 
the erection of the southwest of France into an independent state. 
Such a result, looking at the France of today, is repugnant to our 
feehngs. But we must look at things as they were then and judge 
accordingly and without prejudice. In the first place, it is to be 
remembered that in Beam there was already the nucleus of such a 
state to build upon; and secondly that Guyenne and Gascony 
for centuries had been possessions of another sovereignty, and that 
their attachment to France was barely over a century old. In the 
sixteenth century it was impossible to divorce religion from politics 
and the only solution was the separation of those which disagreed 
on matters of religion, as the division between the Protestant Dutch 
and the Catholic Flemish provinces in 1578-79 proves. The 
Peace of Augsburg had laid down the principle cujus regio, ejus 
religio, and no other policy could have prevailed in Germany at 
that time. But France was trying to make a monarchy, institu- 
tionally and necessarily Catholic, adapt itself to two religions, 
which could not be done as long as politics and religion, church 
and state, were united. Even after twenty-eight years more of 
struggle, neither the trial and experience of all those years nor the 
genius of Henry IV ever made the Edict of Nantes anything more 
than a modus vivendi which first proved intolerable to the Hugue- 
nots because of their own pohtical ambitions, and finally to the 
monarchy of Louis XIV, whose motto was as truly: "Un roi, une 
loi, une foi" as it was "I'etat, c'est moi." The French monarchy 
in the nature of things, in the sixteenth century, could not be one- 
half Catholic and one-half Protestant, any more than the United 
States, as Lincoln said, could exist one-half slave and one-half 
free. What France would have lost by the creation of an inde- 
pendent state in the southwest would have been compensated for 

I For a description of Brouage see Rel. ven., I, 27. 



410 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

by other gains in other ways. Such a state in southwest Europe 
would have been an effective agency for peace, in the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries. It not only would have relieved its Catholic 
neighbors of the rehgious dissidents within their borders; it would 
have been a checkmate upon the undue aggrandizement of either 
France or Spain, operating like Holland and Switzerland as a 
buffer state and for the maintenance of the balance of power. The 
Spanish marriages of France in the next century probably never 
would have been, with their attendant train of dynastic and terri- 
torial complications during the reign of Louis XIV. The Grand 
Monarque perhaps never would have conceived the thought of 
browbeating the rest of Europe, and certainly never would have 
been able to carry the idea out to the extent he did. 

In abandoning his original plan in January, 1570, Coligny not 
merely altered the immediate future of France ; perhaps he changed 
its destiny for centuries to come. Instead of securing peace and 
security for the Huguenots by cutting the Gordian knot and estab- 
lishing an independent Huguenot state, with Beam as its corner- 
stone, he threw the solution of the question back upon France. 
He had dreamed of a Huguenot France beyond sea. Why not 
one at home ? Instead Coligny had become possessed with the 
idea that neither the King nor his ministers would seriously think 
of peace as long as the war could be kept confined to provinces 
remote from Paris and therefore, in order to force the hand of the 
King, it was necessary to force war upon him in the very heart of 
the kingdom. In other words, he conceived a new design, namely, 
to throw the war into the center of France once more, to march 
upon Paris, and, before its gates, dictate the terms he desired. 

In pursuance of this new policy, the army of the admiral and 
the viscounts, with Montgomery, moved up the Garonne. Tou- 
louse was invested for a month (January 22-February 20, 1570), 
as we have seen, without success and the country fearfully wasted.^ 

I The sources are unanimous on this point, both Protestant and Catholic 
(La Noue, Disc, polit. et milit., chap, xxix; La Popeliniere, Book XXII; Montluc, 
Comment., Ill, 395; Brantome, ed. Lalanne, IV, 322; Hist, die Lang., V, 527-29, 
note; Deiaborde, III, 189). The outrages of the reiters were so great that a 
special order of the day was required to govern their conduct (see K. 1,575, ^o- ^7)- 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 



411 



Want of provisions for men and horses at the end of this time 
compelled the host to move toward Carcassonne and Montreal.^ 
As the country between Montpellier and Avignon was almost 
totally in control of the Huguenots, Coligny soon moved thither, 
whence he followed up the right bank of the Rhone to Vivarais 
and Forez. Illness overtook him here and he was in great dansfer.^ 




HUGUENOT ATTACK UPON A CATHOLIC CHURCH 
(Bib. Nat., Estampes, Histoire de France, Q. b) 

For a time it seemed certain that fate would call Louis of Nassau 
who had joined him from Orange, to the leadership of the army.^ 
By the time of the admiral's recovery, it was time for action if his 
design was to be executed, for things were in a greater state of 
doubt and uncertainty regarding the peace than ever. 

The prospect of peace darkened as the winter began to break 
and preparations in both camps grew more active. In February 

1 During the nine months which elapsed between the battle of Moncontour 
and the peace of St. Germain, the Huguenot army marched over 300 leagues. 

2 La Popeliniere, Book XXII ; La Noue, chap, xxix; Revue hist., II, 542, 543. 

3 La Noue's observation on this point is curious; cf. Delaborde, III, 205. 



412 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the marshal Cosse prepared to expel the Huguenots from La Cha- 
rite in order to deprive them of their only means of communication 
across the Loire River, by which assistance could be brought from 
Germany. This place had been one of the cities demanded from 
the government as pledge of good behavior, but the crown was 
determined not to yield in this particular. Queen Elizabeth had 
strongly assured the King that she had not directed nor licensed 
any of her subjects to carry arms or munitions to La Rochelle, but 
guarded herself against possible compromising evidence being 
discovered in future by adding that she "generally must permit 
merchants to resort indifferently to France."' 

While the negotiations thus dragged on through March and 
April,- a new element of excitement was introduced by the con- 
duct of the reiters in the Catholic army. These adventurers, 
many of whom were Protestant in faith, tired of idleness and deter- 
mined either to renew the war or secure their wages, on April 17 
sent the King an address in which, in the same breath, they as- 
serted their loyalty to Charles IX and their belief that those of 
the Reformed religion w^ere only fighting for liberty of conscience 
and the' preservation of their lives. Though guardedly put, 
reading between the lines, this memorial implied peace at once or 
immediate renewal of the war. Coincident with this manifesto 
the princes of Navarre and Conde joined in a note to the King 
declaring their resolution never to yield. To these causes of dis- 
affection must be added the further one that many in the rank and 
file of the Huguenot party believed that the Protestant leaders were 
seeking to serve their own ends more than the common good ; and 
accused them of being more anxious for the preservation of their 
privileges than for the free exercise of religion. 

1 Cf. Elizabeth's declarations of neutrality to Norris, C. S. P., For., No. 704, 
February 23, 1570). Across the Channel the cardinal of Chatillon did all he could 
to secure the support of the English queen for the Huguenots (ibid., No. 742, the 
cardinal to Cecil, March 9, 1570; cf. Delaborde, Coligny, III, 185; La Ferriere, 
Le XVIe siecle et les Valois, 254-56; and a letter of the cardinal to the prince 
of Orange, April 23, 1570, Arch, de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 373-77). But 
it was not from England direct, but from Germany, under the stimulus of English 
gold, that France looked for assistance to come to the Huguenots (C. S. P. Ven., 
No. 476, February 26, 1570. 

2 See Appendix XXIV. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 413 

Matters continued thus" to hang fire for several weeks. The 
King went to Mont St. Michel in the middle of May to keep the 
feast of Corpus Christi there, where, while professing his desire 
to conclude the peace, Charles IX nevertheless imposed a tax of 
60,000 francs monthly upon those who had failed to bear arms m 
the late conflict. At the same time there was a large exodus of 
nobles from the court, many gentlemen, weary of long service 
in arms, soliciting and securing leave to' retire. The talk of peace, 
too, continued to be current in the court, ^ although Charles IX's 
secret dealings with Montluc, the alienation" of 50,000 ecus de 
rente of the property of the church,^ and the fact that the marshal 
Cosse at this same time advanced out of Orleans with 2,000 horse 
and 4,000 French footmen and was soon joined by 8,000 Swiss 
and 30 companies of men-at-arms belied this. 

Montluc had been on the point of resigning his commission for 
months past on account of the friction with Damville, but repented 
when there was prospect of the liberal marshal Cosse succeeding 
him, fearing lest, with another such as Damville, the Catholic 
cause throughout the south would be ruined. ^ He still clung to 
the hope of seeing Beam conquered notwithstanding Terride's 
failure, and in June, 1570, the opportunity seemed to have come. 
With the aim of diverting the war from the Ile-de-France, 
and throwing it into the provinces once more — the farther the 
better — Charles IX grasped at a new expedition against Beam. 
Montluc was given the commission. ^ Notwithstanding his years 
and his infirmity and the penury of the government, which had 
neither munitions nor money to spare, Montluc managed to raise 
a considerable force. ^ 

1 State Papers, Foreign, Elizabeth, Vol. CXII, No. 693 J, the cardinal of Lor- 
raine to , May 4, 1570, see Appendix XXV. 

2 Coll. des autographes de M. Plcton, No. 67. Order signed by the cardinals 
of Lorraine, Bourbon, and Pelleve, June 24, 1570, for the alienation of 50,000 
ecus de rente of the property of the church. 

3 Commentaires et le(tres de Montluc, III, 332. 

4 The actual document is still preserved in the Archives nationales, K. 1,725, 
No. 41. It is dated June 16, 1570, and countersigned by L'Aubespine. 

5 He borrowed 4,000 livres, chiefly in Bordeaux; the munitions came from 
Toulouse and Bayonne. The provinces were required to furnish the supplies 



414 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

He had resolved to besiege the httle fortified town of Rabastens, 
near Tarbes, which he had chosen as the point of attack because 
he could draw upon Gascony for supplies from this place more 
easily than by beginning at St. Severs, which bordered on the 
Landes, "a country only fruitful in sands."' But the expedition 
came to an untimely end. In an unguarded moment Montluc 
exposed himself and "a. harquebus-shot clapt into his face" with 
such force as to break his whole visage in, so that the cheek-bones 
were taken out in splinters. The town was taken, nevertheless. 
How it suffered may be read in the words of him who meted out 
its punishment. 

My Lieutenant, who had marcht on the one hand of me when I went on to 
the Assault .... came to see if I was dead, and said to me: "Sir, cheer up 
your spirits, and rejoyce, we have entred the Castle, and the Soldiers are laying 
about them, who put all to the sword; and assure your self we will revenge your 
wound." I then said to him, "Praised be God that I see the Victory ours 
before I dye. I now care not for death. I beseech you return back, and as 
you have ever been my friend, so now do me that act of friendship not to suffer 
so much as one man to escape with life." Whereupon he immediately 
returned and all my servants went along with him, so that I had no body left 
with me but two Pages, Monsieur de Las, and the Chirurgeon. They would 
fain have sav'd the Minister, and the Governor, whose name was Captain 
Ladon, to have hang'd them before my Lodging, but the Soldiers took them 
from those who had them in their custody, whom they had also like to have 
kill'd for offring to save them, and cut them in a thousand pieces. They made 
also fifty or threescore to leap from the high Tower into the Moat, which were 
there all drown 'd. There were two only saved who were hid, and such there 
were who offer'd four thousand Crowns to save their lives, but not a man of 
ours would hearken to any Ransom; and most of the women were kill'd who 
also did us a great deal of mischief with throwing stones. There was found 
within a Spanish Merchant whom the Enemy had kept prisoner there, and 
another Catholick Merchant also, who were both saved; and these were all 
that were left alive of the men that we found in the place, namely the two that 
some one help't away, and the two Catholick Merchants. Do not think, you 

{Commentaires et letires de Montluc, III, 400). The consular registers of Agen 
and Auch still preserve the records of his requisitions. According to the report 
of a Spanish spy, in K. 1,576, No. 5, the forces consisted of 10,000 footmen, 1,500 
horse, and 18 pieces of artillery. This is surely exaggerated. His Commentaires 
imply that his men were few in number and he expressly says that he was short of 
munitions and artillery. 

I Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 401. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 415 

who shall read this Book, that I caused this slaughter to be made so much out 
of revenge for the wound I had received, as to strike terror into the Country, 
that they might not dare to make head against our Army. And in my opinion 
all Souldiers in the beginning of a Conquest ought to proceed after that manner, 
with such as are so impudent as to abide Canon; he must bar his ears to all 
Capitulation and Composition, if he do not see great difficulties in his Enter- 
prize, and that his Enemy have put him to great trouble in making a Breach. 
And as severity (call it cruelty if you please) is requisite in case of a resolute 
opposition, so on the other side mercy is very commendable, and fit, if you see 
that they in good time surrender to your discretion.^ 

Since his assumption of the command at La Rochelle La Noue 
had displayed an energy that drove the enemy to despair. On 
land and on sea he became a terror to them. Sometimes it was 
by arresting the King's galleys and bringing them as prizes to 
La Rochelle or Brouage;^ sometimes it was by driving them out, as 
at Rochefort, by digging a trench which poured waters waist deep 
down upon them; sometimes it was by battle in the open field. 
La Noue outmatched Puygaillard at every point, notwithstanding 
that his antagonist had the King's picked troops. In the plain 
of Ste. Gemme, near Lufon, their armies clashed in a fierce, stub- 
bornly fought engagement. Nearly all the captains of his enemy's 
two regiments and 500 arquebusiers were killed and as many more 
taken prisoner. The brilliant captain at last won, although he 
was so badly injured by an arquebus shot in the left arm that 
amputation was necessary. Yet in the hour of his own intense 
suffering he magnanimously lamented "the death of so many 
brave gentlemen. "^ 

I Commentaries of Blaise de Montluc, translated by Cotton, 368, 369. This 
occurred on July 23, 1570. To consummate Montluc's humiliation, Charles IX 
filled his place, without giving him opportunity to resign, by appointing the mar- 
quis de Villars to be his successor. He did not reach Guyenne until October 22. 
In the meantime his brother, Jean de Montluc, bishop of Valence, and commissaire 
des finances in Guyenne, and as much a Politique as the other was a bigot, exercised 
authority for him. Gascony was governed by the seigneur de Vigues (Commen- 
taires et lettres de Montluc, III, 434). 

' C. S. P. Spain, No. 687, February 15, 1570. 

3 Ibid., For., No. 1,023, June 20, 1570, La Noue to the cardinal of Chatillon; 
ibid., No. 1,107, July 22, 1570; Hauser, La Noue, 20-22. He received the 
name "Iron Arm" (Bras-de-fer) from the circumstance that he afterward wore a 
mechanism made of iron, with which, at least, he was able to guide his horse. 



4i6 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Much more decisive than this engagement, however, was CoHg- 
ny's action. The admiral had been Hngering at Montbrison in 
Auvergne during May for the purpose of guarding the upper Loire. ^ 
Alarmed by the formidable army under the marshal Cosse, Coligny 
now determined to strike suddenly and hard in order to preserve 
La Charite. This resolution precipitated the battle of Amay-le-Duc 
on June 15, 1570.^ The result of this victory was startling. The 
government capitulated almost at once. All the essential terms 
of peace had been thrashed over during the spring and in less than 
a week after the battle Charles IX held in his hands the articles 
of pacification demanded by the Huguenots, chiefly stipulating 
for the free exercise of rehgion within three towns in every province 
and at Charenton, amnesty for the past and restitution of offices 
and estates. But the crown flatly refused the right within ten 
miles of Paris, or even for Protestant noblemen attending court 
in their own chambers and offered two towns in each province instead 
of three. When this was refused it was finally settled to adopt 
August I, 1570, as an annus normalis, and permit Calvinist worship 
to be held in all towns in the possession of the Huguenots on that 
date. The two points of contention still unsettled were the pay- 
ment of the reiters and determination of the surety-towns. The 
government at first proposed that the payment of the reiters be 
equally apportioned between the subjects of both religions, but 
finally shouldered the burden. As to the surety-towns — the most 
important point of all as far as practical pohtics was concerned — • 
great difficulty was experienced before agreement was made. 
The King at first offered to yield La Rochelle, Angouleme, and 
Montauban, and to trade Perpignan or Lansac for La Charite. ^ 
Later, Angouleme was withdrawn and Cognac substituted, to the 
displeasure of the Huguenots, and La Charite definitely yielded. 
As to other matters, namely, restitution of honors, offices, estates, 
privileges, equality of justice, amnesty, release of prisoners, and 

1 On Coligny 's campaign in Rouergue and the Cevennes in the spring of 1570, 
see Revue hist., II, 537-39, letters of the cardinal of Armagnac of April i, April 11, 
and May 10. 

2 Delaborde, III, 209-15. 3 Neg. Tosc, III, 618. 



THE THIRD CIVH. WAR 4^7 

the like, these of course were provided for, and Protestant nobles 
enjoying "high justice" were to be permitted to enjoy free exercise 
of the Calvinist faith, including baptism in their houses, for their 
families, and all others in their dependence,^ an evidence that 
the feudal element in the Huguenot party was more considered 
than the bourgeoisie.^ 

The papal nuncio, understanding that the Huguenots had 
demanded the exercise of their religion in the counties of Verre 
and Avignon, which belonged to the Pope, declared that no peace 
could be made with those who were outside of the church. ^ At 
the same time the Spanish ambassador, being informed that it 
was part of the Huguenot programme to secure the restitution 
of William of Orange and his brother Louis of Nassau to their 
French possessions, also protested warmly against the peace. Spain 
offered direct assistance to France of men and money, and the city 
of Paris and the clergy offered to maintain the war at their own 
expense for eight months longer. But these protests were inef- 
fectual. The Spanish ambassador's mouth was stopped by the 
rejoinder that the French King had as much right to make a 
treaty of peace with his subjects as Philip of Spain had to make 
terms with the Moriscos,^ and so, though apprehensive of French 

1 The parlement of Toulouse strongly protested against the edict (Hist, du 
Lang., V, 538, note 5). The Peace of St. Germain was registered by the Parlement 
on August II, 1570 (C. 5. P. For., August 11, 1570; cf. Delaborde, III, 230, 231). 
The Pope wrote with mingled alarm and regret over the Peace of St. Germain to 
the cardinals of Bourbon and Lorraine, on September 23, 1570 (Potter, Pie V, 
103, 107, ed. Gouban, Book IV, letter 7, pp. 282, 285. 

2 For an excellent discussion of the feudal interests and policy of the Hugue- 
nots in the civil wars, see Weill, Les theories sur le pouvoir royal en France pendant 
les guerres de religion, 73-80. 

3 See the letter of the papal nuncio to Philip II, June 26, 1570, in Appendix 
XXVI. The Pope had protested even earlier than this (brief of Pius V to the 
cardinal of Lorraine, March 2, 1570, disapproving of the conditions of peace). 
The King, even if vanquished, ought not to have consented to such detestable 
terms. The Pope's sorrow is the greater because of the cardinal's assent to them 
(La Ferriere Rapport, 55). 

4 In 1562 on account of fear lest the Moriscos might enter into relation with 
the Moors of Africa, the government of Spain forbade the use of arms among them. 
In 1567 an attempt was made to suppress their language and abolish their national 



41 8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

and German Protestant assistance being given to Orange and 
fearful of an attack upon Franche Comte, the Spanish ambassa- 
dor was forced to be content with the promise of France that no 
hostihty was intended or would be permitted in France toward 
Spain. 

The Peace of St. Germain was the broadest and most substantial 
body of privileges yet secured by the French Protestants. Ante- 
dating the Edict of Nantes by twenty-eight years, it might have 
been as great and as permanent an instrument as the latter, if the 
ambition of the Guises and the intervention of Spain in French 
affairs had not overthrown it. France itself, government and 
people, was tired of ten years of strife and disposed to peace. The 
economic interests of the country were anxious for peace. Only 
zealots for the religion and those who sought to fish in troubled 
waters reprobated the terms of St. Germain and sought to con- 
tinue the struggle. It is true that mutual suspicion still prevailed. 
Some of the Huguenots anticipated new encroachments again, 
destructive of the peace, and that the King only aimed to disarm 
the Protestants in order to overwhelm them later. But time, in all 
probability, would have qualified this feeling. Religion, unless 
artificially exaggerated, had ceased to be the primary issue of France 
by 1 5 70. The real issue was Spain. For all parties alike in France 
had begun to chafe because of the power acquired by foreign mili- 
tary influences, especially that of Philip — a feeling which ultimately 
was destined to unite the country on the basis of a national patrio- 
tism and embolden Henry of Navarre to expel the Spaniard and 
establish the Bourbon throne on a truly national basis. 

An incident which took place at the court in mid- July, when 
the terms of peace were under consideration, illustrates this all 
but universal hatred of Spain. One day the Spanish ambassador 
entered the King's chamber for audience. Soon afterward the 
marshal Tavannes came in, who was somewhat deaf and accus- 

customs. A terrible war ensued. Don John of Austria finally suppressed the 
revolt after it had lasted for ten years. But in 1570, in anticipation of a Turkish 
attack from the west the Moors again rebelled and Spain had to compromise 
(Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 361; cf. Lea, The Aloriscos 0} 

Spain). 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 419 

tomed to speak in a loud voice. Perceiving the ambassador he 
gruffly remarked in a voice so audible as to be heard by Alava : 

These Spaniards would do better to govern their own members and not 
interfere by trying to govern other people's countries. For I well know that 
the Spaniards have no wish but to foment civil wars, so that both one party 
and the other may be weakened and they themselves become stronger than 
both. For my own part, I would rather see a hundred white capes [the 
Huguenot costume] than one red cross [the device the Spaniards wore]; be- 
cause, after all, the first are our brethren and our kindred, while the latter are 
the natural enemies of our country.^ 

It was an opportune time for France to undertake an anti- 
Spanish policy, and it was soon predicted that she would follow 
such a course.^ Aside from the discomfiture of the Guises owing 
to the peace, a condition which peculiarly discountenanced the 
cardinal of Lorraine, the duke of Guise was in disgrace also. For 
he was discovered to have made overtures of marriage to IMadame 
Marguerite, the King's sister, and the lady herself for whom a 
Portuguese match was being considered as a blow to Spain, was 
reputed to have expressed a preference rather to stay in France 
than "to eat figs in Portugal." Guise, when the discovery was 
made that he had raised his eyes to the princess, hastily attempted 
to divert suspicion by marrying the princess of Porcien. But 
the episode injured the influence of the Guises, and brought Mont- 
morency forward as the man of the hour.^ 

Under the new regime, the government set about carrying out 
the terms of pacification, enforcement of which chiefly depended 
upon the upright and just conduct of the four marshals.-* By the 

I C. S. p. Ven., No. 485, July 20, 1570. 2 ^Veg-. Tosc, III, 439. 

3 "Montmorency bears the vogue in court." — C. S. P. For., No. 1,216, Norris 
to the Queen, August 31, 1570. To enhance his prestige at this time, Montmor- 
ency's claim of right of precedence at court which the duke of Mayenne contested 
was decided by the Privy Council in his favor (C 5. P. For., No. 1,083, J^^y 9) I57°)- 

4 Christopher de Thou to the King, December 2, 1570 defending the Parlement 
against the accusation that it is unjust to the Calvinists: "Mais un tel crime et si 
execrable ne se scauroit asses punir, et seroit plus tost a craindre que nous fussions 
reprehensibles de trop grande remission que de grand severite, qu'ils appelent 
cruaute." He and his colleagues wish that the duke of Anjou might enter into 
possession of his appanage in order that the duchy of Alenfon may be in the juris- 
diction of the Parlement of Paris and not in that of Normandy (Collection la Jar- 
riette. No. 2,796). 



420 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

end of September the camps were wholly broken up and the reiters 
either over or on their way across the frontier.^ To be sure, 
radical Protestants continued to complain of infractions of the 
edict. ^ But the one serious infraction of the edict was in the 
fifteenth article, providing that all scholars, the sick and the poor, 
should be received in the universities, schools, and hospitals with- 
out difference or distinction on account of religion. The Catholic 
party, in the hope of abridging the development of the competing 
religion soon persuaded the King to nullify this provision. In 
compliance with a petition praying that the crown would forbid 
any of the Reformed religion from holding any post of authority in 
the University of Paris, and also that the university authorities 
might have power to search for and seize all heretical books, 
Charles IX on October 8, 1570, issued a proclamation forbidding 
any Calvinist from holding any office or teaching in the University 
of Paris and giving the authorities thereof the right of search for 
heretical books. ^ On November 20, this was followed by a more 
sweeping decree forbidding any persons from keeping schools or 
holding office in any college, or lecturing on any art or science in 
public or in private unless recognized and approved by the Roman 
church. 4 Nevertheless, these petitions, complaining of infractions 
of the edict, were more smoke than fire. The only internal issue 
of great importance was an economic one. 

x\part from the destructiveness of the war, nature again dealt 

1 Sir Henry Norris under date of September 23, testifies that "the state here 
is very quiet, where all strife and old grudges seem utterly buried, and men live in 
good hope of the continuance thereof, since the occasioner of all the troubles [the 
cardinal of Lorraine] in this realm is out of credit" (C S. P. For., No. 1,285, 
Norris to Cecil). The reiters in the course of their return home, pillaged the 
fair of Champagne (Claude Haton, II, 592 and note). 

2 Thirty articles complaining of infractions of the Edict of Pacification, and 
desiring that they may be redressed, with the King's answers in the margin (C 5. P. 
For., No. 1,323, October, 1570). 

3 Ibid., No. 1,359. Pierre Ramus was excluded from the College of Presles 
by this decree. 

•* Ordonnance du Roy sur les defences de tenir Escolles, Principaultez, Col- 
leges; ny lire en quelque art; ou science que ce soit, en public, prive ou en chambre, 
s'ilz ne sont congenuz et approuvez este de la Religion catholique et romaine. Avec 
I'Arrest de la court du Parlement. Poictiers, B. Noscereau, 1570. 



THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 421 

hardly with France in this year. There were heavy rains over all 
Europe which either rotted the grain in the fields or washed it out. 
A great inundation of the Seine occurred on June 2, 1570, and the 
plague began to grow more virulent once more.' There was a 
certain amount of reason in the demand for a new session of the 
Estates to consider the economic distress of France, but the King 
was wise in refusing the request, for in event of its meeting, the 
enemies of Spain would have been sure to endeavor to fan the 
ashes of the late civil war into flames again. As a solace to those 
demanding economic relief Charles IX promised to abolish sundry 
superfluous offices and to tax the nobles instead of the commons 
for the relief of his debts which amounted to 37,000,000 francs. 
An earnest of this intention is manifest in an ordinance requiring 
parish wardens to keep accounts and to make a declaration of the 
revenue of their churches and to send this information to the royal 
bailift's. Every parish was forced to obey this edict, which was a 
novelty indeed. But the parish authorities took advantage of the 
situation and not merely rendered an account of their incomes, 
but also gave the King a minute account of the ruin they had suf- 
fered at the hands of the Huguenots. The bailiffs 'received these 
declarations and sent them to the Privy Council of the King, where 
the evidence was reviewed and every church taxed accordingly. 
The churches which had been burned by the Protestants were 
lightly taxed, and those which were found to be incapable of pay- 
ment were authorized to sell their possessions, their vessels, jewels, 
or lands, or else impose a tax on the parish.^ 

But the thrifty bourgeoisie of France were too lucrative a source 
of income for the King to keep his promise not to tax them more. 
In March, 1571, an edict was issued providing that bolts of woolen 
cloth should be sealed with a leaden seal before sale, and that each 
bolt should be taxed 3 francs, 4 deniers. The new impost, which 
was very unpopular, was ascribed to the Italian influence at court. ^ 

^ Claude Haton, II, 610 and 617. 

2 Ibid., 629. 3 Ibid., 740. 



CHAPTER XV 
THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 

The dominant politics of France in the years 1570-72 were 
foreign, not domestic, and had to do with Spain. The clouds 
hung heavy over Spain's dominions in spite of the suppression 
of the Moriscos, and dark was the prospect ahead for Phihp 11. 
In the east only was light. The great victory at Lepanto over 
the Turks, fought on October 7, 1571, though of general benefit 
to Christendom, was of greatest advantage to Spain. 

It is at this juncture that the duke of Anjou, the King's brother, 
becomes a conspicuous poHtical figure, one, indeed, of inter- 
national importance. In order to confirm the confidence of the 
Huguenots, but especially to strengthen France against Spanish 
preponderance, the idea was again put forward of marrying 
Anjou to Queen Elizabeth.^ At the same time the plan was 
broached of marrying young Henry of Navarre to the sister of the 
duke of Wiirttemberg. But again Montmorency came to the 
forefront and revived the plan suggested in 1569 of marrying the 
princess Marguerite, Charles IX's youngest sister, to Henry of 
Navarre. Coligny for the Huguenots, and Walsingham and 
Norris for England, urged the double plan.^ The Ridolfi plot 
proved to Elizabeth that England, like France, had her greatest 
enemy in Spain. 

The consternation of the Guises and Spain at the discovery 
of this double marriage project was great. The Guises sought to 
break the proposed marriage of Anjou and Queen Ehzabeth 

I The vidame of Chartres to the Marshal Montmorency, October 3, 1570. 
See Appendix XXVII. The scheme originated with the vidame de Chartres and 
the cardinal Chatillon (see La Ferriere, "Les projets de marriage d'une reine 
d'.\ngleterre," Revue des deux mondes, September 15, 1881, p. 310; cf. Hume, 
Courtships of Queen Elizabeth, 115. In 1563 the prince of Conde had actually 
proposed the marriage of Charles IX and Elizabeth {Revue des deux mondes). 
August 15, 1881, p. 861. 

= C. S. P. For., No. 1,521, January 27, 1571. Walsingham to Cecil. 

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THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 423 

by Differing him Mary Stuart, and that of Henry of Navarre with 
the King's sister by offering the cardinal d'Este as a prospective 
husband, since he was universally expected to succeed his brother, 
the duke of Ferrara who was without issue. Tuscan influence was 
used to this end. Spain and the papacy, for their part, dangled 
before the eyes of the duke of Anjou the post of command over 
the fleet preparing against the Turks.' The gulf between France 
and Spain, however, was too wide to be bridged by such an offer. 
Disappointed at Bayonne, Catherine was dreaming of the elder 

I Such an offer, in the nature of things, could not have been accepted. Aside 
from the fact that France at this juncture was unwilHng to further any cause advo- 
cated by Spain, there was too much practical advantage to France in maintaining the 
entente cordiale with the Turks. Turkish influence might be brought to bear upon 
the Emperor to neutralize his opposition to French enterprise in Poland; moreover, 
France had but recently concluded an advantageous commercial treaty with the 
Sultan. For accounts of the relations of France and Turkey at this time seCjDu \f f, 1 ' 
Ferrier , Un amhassadeur liberal sous Charles IX et Henri III, 44-102; Flament, 
''La France et la Ligue contre le Turc (1571-73)," Rev. d'hist. dip., XVI, 1902, 
p. 619; Janssen, History of the German People, VIII, chap, v, "Turkish wars 
up to 1572." The league of the Christian powers, whose efforts culminated in the 
famous engagement of Lepanto was formed in May, 1571. The king of Spain, 
the Pope and Venice were the principals thereof. Spain was to provide one-half 
of the forces, the Venetians one-third, and the Pope the remainder. The capture 
of Cyprus by the Turks in the spring of 1570 was the immediate cause of its forma- 
tion (cf. La vraye et tres fidelle narration des siicces, des assaults, defences et prinse 
dii royaume de Cypre, faicte par F. Ange de Lusignan, Paris 1580; Commentari 
delta guerra di Cipro e delta lega dei principi cristiani contro il Turco, di Bartolomeo 
Sereno, 1845; Herre, Europaische Politih in cyprischen Krieg, Ij^o-yj, Leipzig, 
1902 — there is a review of this in English Hist. Review, XIX, 357; Miller, "Greece 
under the Turks 1571-1684," English Hist. Review, XIX, 646). Europe ex- 
pected a double attack on the part of Mohammedanism, both in the Mediterranean 
and by land against Hungary and Transylvania, as in 1530. Venice trembled for 
Zara in Dalmatia. These fears were not misplaced. The warlike preparations 
of the Sultan went so far as to offer pardon to all malefactors, except rebels and 
counterfeiters, who would serve in the galleys. The allied fleet lay at Candia 
during the winter of 1570-71 awaiting reinforcements. But there was a vast 
amount of anxiety and discontent among the allies, for nothing but the sense of a 
common peril could have united Venice and Spain, or Venice and the Pope. In 
the politics of Europe Venice was a neutral power, and neutrality in the religious 
politics of the time, in Philip II's eyes, was almost tantamount to heresy. More- 
over, as was inevitable, the tediousness of the preparations and the corruption of 
officials of the fleet was so great that men even died of hunger inflicted through 
fraud. Only Venice's administration seems to have been efiicient. 



424 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

daughter of the Hapsburgs as the future wife of Charles IX. Such 
a marriage appealed to her as a practical way of playing one house 
of Hapsburg against the other, although she plausibly represented 
it as a new tie that would bind France and the Hapsburgs in 
greater amity.' 

The counter-claims of France and Austria to the Three Bishop- 
rics, and the renewal by France of her former relations with 
Turkey, retarded this negotiation.^ The greatest hindrance, 
though, was the opposition of Philip II. It was with the object 
of frustrating the designs of France that Phihp II had transferred 
his ambassador in France, Chantonnay, from Paris to Vienna. ^ At 
Bayonne, the queen mother had exerted all her influence in vain 
to prevail upon the court of Spain to commit itself. When Four- 
quevaux succeeded St. Sulpice at Madrid, he, in turn, continued 
to urge that Charles IX should marry the princess Anne ; that Mar- 
guerite of Valois should marry Don Carlos, and Henry of Anjou 
the infanta Juana, Philip's sister. But Philip II still hesitated 
between Mary Stuart and Anne of Austria, and suggested the 
younger daughter of Maximilian as prospective spouse for Charles 
IX,4 Matters remained thus undetermined for years. The 
marriage of Mary Stuart to Darnley in 1565 and the death of 
Don Carlos in July, 1568 raised Catherine's hopes. But they 
were dashed to pieces after the death of Elizabeth of Valois, on 
October 3, 1568, when Phihp II himself became the suitor for the 
hand of Anne of Austria. French and Spanish diplomacy there- 
after plotted and counterplotted, until in 1570 the French King 
had to endure the chagrin of seeing his expected queen become 
the fourth bride of Philip of Spain and himself be satisfied with 
the younger sister, whose physical charms ^ did not compensate 
for the injury to his pride. ^ 

1 L' Amhassade de St. Sulpice, 150. 

2 Negociations dans le Levant, III, 13. 3 U Amhassade de St. Sulpice, 261, 267. 
ADepeches de M. Fourquevaux, II, 28; III, 41. 

s Sir Thomas Smith, the English ambassador in France, described her in Janu- 
ary, 1571 as "a pretty little lady, but fair and well-favored." — C. S. P. For., No. 8. 

6 Even at the official ceremony (Godefroi, Ceremonial Jrangais, II, 20) of 
betrothal in the cathedral at Speyer the latent hostility of France and Spain was 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 425 

But Philip gained another point of advantage over the French 
King, a point which the latter never discovered. The duchy of 
Lorraine, was a fief of the empire and had been so ever since the 
Middle Ages. Situated in the penumbra between France and 
Germany, the duke of Lorraine's position had become a complex 
one and he was a vassal of France for the border duchy of Bar. 
As a sign of his amity toward the Emperor, Charles IX at the 
time of his marriage agreed to release the duke of Lorraine from 
his fealty to France. This waiver stirred the patriotic indignation 
of the keeper of the seal, Morvilliers, who resigned his office, 
declaring that he would not be an agent for separating from the 
crown of France any principality owing allegiance to it. Un- 
fortunately for the future, the King appointed a secret partisan 
of Spain to the post. This was Biragues, a Milanese by birth, 
whose sinister influence was to play no mean part in the 
future. ' 

As might be expected, the winter and spring of 1571-72 were 
filled with cross-negotiations of great importance. The greatest 
Catholic-Spanish fear was lest a positive alliance be made between 
France, England, and Holland, and perhaps the Protestant Ger- 
man states for the liberation of the Netherlands, that league to 
have greater binding force through the double marriage of the 
duke of Anjou and Queen Elizabeth and Henry of Bourbon to 
Marguerite of France.^ Spain, to prove France, made final demand 

manifested. The Spanish ambassador refused to give precedence to the ambassador 
of Charles IX, and so absented himself, the Venetian envoy being compelled to do 
the same, because of the alliance between these two powers (C 5. P. For., No. 
1,355; Cobham to Cecil, October 22, 1570). For other details cf. Nos. 1,267, i>275, 
1,377, 1430. On the negotiations see Mem. de Castelnau (ed. Le Laboureur), 
II, Book VI, 467. 

1 Rel. ven., II, 255. Killigrew in a letter to Lord Burghley, December 29, 
1571, shrewdly observed, a propos of the change, that "divers of the followers of 
Guise have not letted to say that the duke of Alva knew the way to Paris' gates." 
— C. S. P. For., No. 2,196. For an example of Biragues' intriguing, and this of 
the most shameful sort, in connection with the proposed marriage of Henry of 
Navarre and Marguerite of Valois see La Ferriere, Rapport, 43. The Huguenots 
had hoped for L'Hopital's recall.— 7 A^e^. Tosc, III, 641. 

2 Janssen, History 0} the German People, VIII, 117 ff. 



426 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of Charles IX : namely, that he forcibly suppress the activity of the 
prince of Orange in France; that Spain be permitted to levy 
Catholics in France to serve in the Low Countries; that 
France restrain the preparations of the Huguenots, especially 
those of La Rochelle, from aiding the Dutch cause on the sea; that 
France renounce her alliance with Turkey and join the Holy 
League against the Ottoman ; and finally, that Charles IX abandon 
the project of marrying his sister to the prince of Navarre. Charles 
IX's replies were very vague. To the. first of these demands he 
replied that his country was too much exhausted by the late wars 
to take up arms for any cause; to the second he said that if he 
permitted Catholic levies to be made in France, the Huguenots 
would not believe them to be for service abroad but would again 
take up arms ; as to the preparations at La Rochelle, it remained 
to be seen if their purpose was not mercantile instead of mili- 
tary. ' 

The attitude of the various parties in France toward the crown's 
Spanish policy was a peculiar one. The Huguenots and moderate 
Catholics of course urged the marriage of the King's brother to 
Queen Elizabeth with the greatest zeal. But even intense Catho- 
lics, like Tavannes, singular as it seems, urged the match, with 
MachiavelHan ingenuity estimating that the King, by incurring 
the deeper enmity of Spain, would be compelled to avail himself 
of their services, and thus, in the end, the cause of Catholicism 
in France would be promoted.^ The queen mother, with char- 
acteristic caution, professed much inclination for the match, but 
urged that it could not be attempted without hazarding the King's 
honor. Meanwhile Montmorency, pushed it with all his ability, 
alternately urging Catherine de Medici and Lord Burghley by an 
assiduous correspondence. ^ 

' C. S. p. For., No. 1,590, March 5, 1571. 

2 This is the keen observation of the Venetian ambassador (cf. C. S. P. Ven., 
515, August I, 1571). 

3 The duke of Montmorency to Lord Burghley, May 20, 1571, see Appendix 
XXVIII. On the whole negotiation see La Ferriere, " Elisabeth et le due 
d'Anjou," Revue des deux mondes, August 15, 1881, p. 857; September 15, 1881, 
P- 307- 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 427 

How purely political as an issue religion had become by this 
time in Europe is made almost cynically manifest in the confer- 
ences between the advocates of the French- English match for the 
purpose of overcoming the religious disparities represented by the 
principals in the proposed match. From the beginning of the 
negotiations it was evident that every compromise made in religion 
would have to be made by France. The incongruities of age and 
religion and the complications of politics were great. The hardest 
thing, perhaps, to estimate, is the influence of Ehzabeth's vacillation. 
Catherine de Medici, on the whole, seems to have been anxious for 
the match. So protracted and so intricate were the negotiations 
that the duke of Anjou, with mingled prejudice and despair, declared 
that "all was but dalliance." ' It was speciously urged upon the duke 
that no attempt was being made to effect his sudden conversion to 
the AngHcan religion, but that he should forego the use of private 
mass, and "examine whether he might not with good devotion use 
the forms of prayers appointed throughout her realm, the same 
being in effect nothing but that which the Church of Rome uses, 
saving that it is in the English tongue, which, if he pleased, might 
be translated into French ; and further, that the usage of the divine 
service in England did not properly compel any man to alter his 
opinion in the great matters being now in controversy in the 
church."^ To this it was rejoined that "religion was a constant 
persuasion confirmed by time" and that "relenting in religion, 
being a matter of conscience, was an inconvenience of more weight 
than any that might happen to the queen." ^ For a while Anjou, 

1 The words were used to De Foix (C 5. P. For., No. 1..632, April i, 1571, 
Walsingham to Burghley). 

2 Ihid., No. 1,739, May 25, 1571; No. 1,813, Francis Walsingham to Lord 
Burghley: He told her that he had delivered a form of the English prayers to 
Monsieur de Foix, which form the Pope would have by council confirmed as Cath- 
olic if the Queen would have acknowledged the same as received from him (Note 
in margin, "an offer made by the Cardinal of Lorraine as Sir N. Throgmorton 
showed me"). That the Queen was bound to prefer the tranquillity of her realm 
before all other respects. There was never before offered to France like occasion 
of benefit and reputation. 

3 Report of conference between Walsingham and De Foix, C. S. P. For., 
No. 1,732, May 25, 1571. 



428 THE RELIGION WARS OF IN FRANCE 

although after the Edict of St. Germain he had staunchly pro- 
tested that no preaching be allowed anywhere in his territories — 
which the King granted — wavered between policy and conscience. 
One day while visiting Madame Carnevalet, the wife of his tutor, 
he said with affected gaiety: " Carnevalet, thou and I were once 
Huguenots, and now again are become good Cathohcs." "Aye," 
she said, " we were so, and if you proceed in the matter you wot of, 
you will then return to be a Huguenot."' 

Spain did everything possible to thwart the negotiation. Her 
ambassador in the presence of the King's council inveighed 
against the plan, asserting that the kingdom of France was going 
to ruin, but he was cautious not to allege any ground but that of 
religion.^ Finally the counter-practices of the Guises and the 
Spanish ambassador, partly by appeals to religious scruples and 
partly by the means of lavish promises, overcame Anjou's hesi- 
tation and he flatly refused to consider the marriage.^ The King 
was furious. "Brother," he said, "you should have used some 
plainness with me in this matter and not leave me to wade so far 
to abuse a prince I so much esteem and honour. You allege 
conscience to be the cause but I know it is a late pension offered 
unto you by the clergy, who would have you still remain here for 
a champion of the Catholic faith. I tell you plainly, I will have 
no other champion here but myself, and seeing you have such a 
desire to remain here on such respects, it behooves me the more 
narrowly to look to you; and as for the clergy, seeing they have so 
great superfluity, and I so great necessity, the benefices being at 
my disposition, I will take a new order; and as for those who make 
the offer, I will make some of them shorter by the head. "^ 

1 Anecdote reported by Walsingham to Burghley, C. S. P., For., No. 1,813, 
June 21, 1571. 

2 Ibid., Ven., No. 576, August 16, 1571; ibid., For., No. 1,928, August 17, 1571. 

3 Ibid., No. 1,883, J'^'y 27, 1571- De Foix and Montgomery were deeply 
discouraged, the former protesting to Walsingham that he had "never travailled 
more earnestly in any matter in his life" (ibid., No. 1,732). "The queen mother 
never wept so much since the death of her husband" (ibid., No. 1,886, July 30, 

1571). " The queen mother was in tears M. de Limoges said that .... 

he never saw the King in greater chafe, and the Queen Mother wept hot tears" 
(ibid., January 8, 1572). 

4 Ibid., No. 1,886, July 30, 1571. 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 429 

Nevertheless, despite the fact that the cause was a lost one, the 
matter was protracted so long that the negotiators of the affair 
themselves perceived the humor in it. Elizabeth protested that 
" of herself she had no mind thereto, yet the continual crying unto 
her of her Privy Council, the necessity of the time, and the love of 
her subjects, had turned her mind to marriage," while the duke 
of Anjou reasserted his belief in his future damnation if he yielded 
anything in the matter of religion. Smith, the English envoy, 
solemnly averred that "the matter of rehgion would be the most 
honourable to break off with," both for his mistress and the duke, 
and in the same breath asked whether it would suffice if the duke 
were suffered for a time to have his mass private in some little 
oratory or chapel — this so that there should be no scandal to 
any of the Queen's subjects. The queen mother repHed that the 
duke must have the exercise of his religion open, lest he should 
seem to be ashamed of it, and that he was now of late so devout 
that he heard two or three masses every day, and fasted the Lent 
and vigils so precisely " that he began to be lean and evil- coloured," 
so that she was angry with him and told him that she "had rather 
he were an Huguenot than be so foolishly precise to hurt his 
health." She told the English ambassador that he would not 
be content to have his mass in a corner, but insisted upon "high 
mass and all the ceremonies thereof according to the time, and 
in song after all solemn fashion of the Roman church, and a 
church or chapel appointed where he might openly have his 
priests and singers and use all their ceremonies." 

"Why, Madame," ejaculated Smith, "then he may require 
also the four orders of friars, monks, canons, pilgrimages, pardons, 
oil and cream, relics, and all such trumperies. The queen of 
England will never agree to any mass, let alone great high mass, 
with all the ceremonies of Rome according to the season, priest, 
deacon, subdeacon, chahce, altar, bells, candlesticks, paten, 
singing men, 'les quatre mendiants et tous les mille diables' " — 
at which tirade all but Anjou laughed.' 

It is at this moment that the duke of Alenjon comes forward 

I C. S. p. For., No. 20, January 7, 1572. 



43° THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

into the light around the throne. Since the duke of Anjou was 
"so extraordinarily, papistically superstitious"^ both sides turned 
toward him, nothwithstanding the absurd disparity between his 
age and that of Queen Elizabeth. Even Elizabeth's hardy 
modesty blushed at the thought of such a match, ^ and the ob- 
jection of inequality in their ages was backed up by guarded 
expressions of repugnance on account of the disfigurement the 
young duke had suffered from small-pox. ^ 

The Huguenot pressure eagerly supported the proposed mar- 
riage between Queen Elizabeth and the duke of Alenfon, for the 
duke was as easy in rehgion as his brother was straight. ^ The 
admiral Coligny urged it upon Lord Burghley, pointing out that 
it would strengthen the treaty of Blois,^ while others urged that 
England would have a practical advantage from the fact that 
Alenfon was as rich in lands as his brother, and that the duchy 
of Alenfon adjoined Normandy, where the whole of the nobility 
was devoted to the duke, and hoped by his means to be restored 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 23, January 9, 1572, Smith to Burghley. 

2 The Queen to Walsingham: Directs him to express her great regret to the 
French king and the queen mother that she cannot assent to their proposal brought 
by M. de Montmorency for her marriage with the duke of Alenfon, and to assure 
them that the only impediments arise from the great disparity in their age, and 
from the bad opinion that the world might conceive of her thereby (C S. P. For., 
No. 496, July 20, 1572; cf. No. 375, May 25, instructions to the earl of Lincoln). 

3 This objection was one so difficult to make without giving offense that it 
required all the delicacy of the English envoys to say anything at all. In C. S. P. 
For., No. 494 under date of July 20, 1572, will be found a draft of instructions to 
Walsingham in Burghley's handwriting on this matter, and by him endorsed: 
"Not sent." Burghley evidently preferred to leave this delicate subject to his 
sovereign. See the queen to Walsingham, ibid., No. 502, July 23, 1572, printed 
in full by Digges, p. 226. 

4 Smith's comments to Burghley are candor itself. "These two brethren be 
almost become 'Capi de Guelphi et Gibellini.' The one has his suite all Papists, 
the other is the refuge and succour of all the Huguenots, a good fellow and lusty 
prince." — Ihid., No. 23, January 9, 1572. He glosses over Alenjon's imperfections 
by the remark that "he is not so tall or fair as his brother, but that is as is fantasied," 
and adds: "Then he is not so obstinate, papistical, and restive like a mule as his 
brother is." — Ibid., No. 28, January 10, 1572. 

s See below for details of this treaty. CoHgny's letter is analyzed in C. S. P. 
For., No. 500, July 22, 1572 (not in Delaborde). 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 431 

to their ancient privileges and liberties, and that then England 
could make "a bulwark and defense" out of Normandy for her 
own protection.' 

It is a difficult story to take seriously, for each one of the actors 
felt its hollowness and unreality. One feels that it was a gigantic 
bubble produced by English and French councilors of state to 
amuse and occupy each other by its brilliancy and wavering in- 
stability. Yet the greatest statesmen in England were driven 
nearly to distraction by their endeavors to keep it in the air. At 
first this diplomatic affair assumes an almost farcical comedy 
'aspect: then it darkens into tragedy. It is a game of chess in 
which the players are grave and reverend statesmen and the 
pieces queens and princes, with this distinction, that the pieces are 
always likely to move of themselves and create unexpected com- 
binations. Yet, for all its hollowness, the story deserves attention, 
for as long as it lasted it absorbed the attention of the persons 
concerned, and it illustrates most admirably Elizabeth's and 
Catherine's tortuous methods of diplomacy. 

When the negotiations began, Elizabeth was already thirty- 
eight years old and of vast experience in promoting and then 
avoiding marriages. As a coy and bashful damsel, she could 
always plead her repugnance to the marriage state, and as the 
head of a Protestant nation, religion was another rock of refuge 
when anxious or angry suitors pressed her too closely. She had 
fooled Philip and she had kept the poor Austrian archduke gam- 
boling before her. What could the pockmarked Francois d'Alen- 
fon expect but disaster? Yet it was he who came the nearest 
to pinning her down to a state of matrimonial stability. 

The two things in Catherine's character which seem to be 
especially prominent in this tale of love and lying are her thirst 
for power for herself and a mother's natural ambition for her 
children. 

Alenfon's appearance is the one thing about him which is 
seriously discussed. He was born 1555 and was therefore twenty- 

I La Ferte to ; draft, endd. by Burghley: Windsor, 6th September, 

1572.— C. S. P. For., No. 555. 



432 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

two years younger than Elizabeth. This was, of course, an 
enormous objection, or, at least, one which could always be urged. 
His age is the official and public objection, but his face and stature 
affected Elizabeth far more.^ As to his character we have the 
testimony of the English and Venetian ambassadors. Smith, in 
January, 1572, calls him "a good fellow and a lusty prince" and 
says "he is not so obstinate, papistical, and restive like a mule 
as his brother is." Dale, in the quaint letter in a Hatfield MS 
says of him : "As touching his behavior he ys the most moderate 
yn all the court; never present at any of the licentious acts of his 
brethren, nor here nor at Rochelle; of much credit, and namely 
with them of the religion; thus he ys and hath ben hetherto; what 
may be hereafter God knoweth." On the whole, the English 
ambassadors favored him, Walsingham the least. Evidently 
he was not an unpleasant person, but a young and inexperienced 
lad, ambitious to do great things, resenting his treatment at the 
court, and so plunged into the current of things, only to be de- 
ceived and ruined by the superior cunning of his supposed friends. 
His shortcomings may be excused on the ground of his environ- 
ment and bringing up; may even be praised as being more manly 
and significant than the effeminate Henry. 

Alenfon's motives in attempting to win Elizabeth are obvious. 
His position in France was most unpleasant to him: suspected by 
his brothers, made fun of and pestered by the Guises and the 
*'mignons" of the court; condemned to a life of subordination and 
idleness by the accident of his birth, the prospect of the hand of 
the Queen of England seemed most glowing, even though she 
was a heretic and more than twenty years older than he. But 
why should Catherine and Elizabeth ever consider such an intrin- 
sically absurd proposition ? 

Elizabeth was face to face with several problems, foreign and 
domestic, upon the solution of which depended her throne and her 
very existence. It is hard to remember as one looks back upon 
her long and splendid reign that there was hardly a moment in it 
when she was free from the danger of overthrow and execution. 

I C. S. P. For., No. 502, July 23, 1572, the Queen to Walsingham. 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 433 

This danger, at this time, had just manifested itself in the Ridolfi 
plot in which the duke of Norfolk, the greatest noblemen of Eng- 
land, Spain, Mary Stuart, and the Pope had all combined. Natur- 
ally the Catholic nobles rallied around Mary, the probable suc- 
cessor to the throne, while the Protestants were at a loss to know 
what to do in view of the unsettled succession. So great was the 
excitement that Elizabeth always hesitated to call a Parhament 
for fear it would attem.pt to urge her on to marriage. Negotia- 
tions, not to speak of marriage, with France would immensely 
relieve the situation. They could be used before Parliament to 
show that Elizabeth was doing her best; hopes of a settled suc- 
cession would at once reassure the country and diminish Mary's 
importance, both as a center of conspiracy and as a source of 
danger in other ways. To be sure, this possible marriage might 
excite the Catholics to renewed efforts to save their faith, but the 
fact that France was Catholic and that from it might come much 
of their help would militate against disturbance. Negotiations 
might bring about most of these results and would in any case gain 
time and postpone the solution of the difficulties. 

A second problem before Ehzabeth was the maintenance of 
the Protestant faith. So far as this enters the negotiations it is 
mostly a pretext, but there was, nevertheless, an actual problem. 
Negotiations for marriage with a Catholic prince might stir up 
the Catholics to renewed activities and raise hopes which it might 
be difficult to allay, but, on the other hand, Elizabeth could hope 
for relief from the Huguenot movement in France, and the rebel- 
lious Dutch, while the alliance with a Catholic prince would im- 
mensely strengthen her in her own middle ground. To allow 
him to bring the mass with him might cause trouble, but still one 
prince could not do much when queen and council were carefully 
watching him. 

Scotland was another source of continual anxiety to the English 
ministry. The government was unsettled and the power likely 
to fall at any time into the hands of those who would turn it over 
to France. Of course this danger would be entirely removed by 
a French marriage, though as events proved, negotiations did not 



434 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

stop the intrigues. A similar point of attack existed in Ireland 
where the least encouragement was sure to raise rebellion. A 
French marriage would make danger in that quarter also less 
hkely. 

But perhaps the greatest source of danger was from Spain. 
There were countless reasons why Philip should declare war — 
religion, the seizure of his treasure by Elizabethan seamen, the 
treatment of Mary (though this did not at first much concern 
him), and Spanish repression in the Netherlands. English nego- 
tiation with France would be of value to England, if for nothing 
else, in keeping France and Spain apart. It was hoped, moreover, 
that once England and France were united, the combination 
might check Philip in his dealing with the Netherlands and the 
English Catholics and in the cruelties visited on Englishmen in 
Spain. 

But there were grave objections to a marriage. It would in- 
troduce a new and unknown element into English councils. Sup- 
pose, as a Catholic, the King should join that party; or worse, 
ally himself with Mary herself, plot the death of Elizabeth and a 
Catholic restoration. Or suppose he should become king of 
France ? or that his child should be heir to both thrones ? The 
thought of becoming a French dependency was intolerable to 
England. In any case it would mean a break wdth Spain and how 
could England be sure that France was not merely tempting her 
to that, finally to leave her to face Spain alone ? Plainly, marriage 
was too close and dangerous a union — as for negotiations, that 
was another matter, and it was simply for the negotiations them- 
selves that Ehzabeth entered upon them. This is proved, I 
think, by her entire policy. Whenever France seems most willing 
she draws away; but when France seems likely to abandon such 
fruitless endeavors, she at once becomes affable and yielding. 
Sometimes her ministers urged her to definite and decided action, 
but she always managed to find a loop-hole, if either they or cir- 
cumstance had forced her into too dangerous agreement. 

France, on the other hand, could not be content with mere 
negotiations. She, too, had several definite problems. Rent by 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 435 

civil war, with enormously powerful barons on the one side and a 
clamorous people on the other, while outside the realm stood 
Spain and England, only too glad to promote and foster her difh- 
culties, the crown was in a struggle for existence as real as that of 
Elizabeth. To join Spain would be for France to lose her in- 
tegral existence and to be swallowed up in the maw of the Haps- 
burgs. Therefore the English alliance was the only refuge. 
Besides there were many other advantages. It would stop Eng- 
land's meddling in French affairs and would calm and reassure the 
Huguenots. But there was the rub: did the Huguenots need to 
be reassured ? Could France safely commit herself to a liberal 
policy ? To Catherine it was not so much that, as the question 
of her own authority and personal ambition for her family; she 
had no intention of giving place to the Huguenots any more than 
she had to the Guises. And so she wavered when the Guises 
were becoming too powerful, and helped along the marriage; 
when the Huguenots began to be too authoritative, she frowned 
on it. 

To the Huguenots the marriage was a question of enormous 
advantage — if it were accomplished, the Calvinists might hope, 
not only for success in France, but in the Low Counrties as well; 
while to the Guises, on the contrary, the alliance meant the ruin 
of their hopes for Mary and for absolute dominion in France. 

But to all the risk was great. Elizabeth was by no means 
firmly seated upon her throne and seemed to be manifesting a 
reckless carelessness in the leniency of her treatment of the late 
conspirators. The English ambassadors noted that any "round- 
ness" of treatment at home at once caused a quickening of the 
negotiations. The real objection, both with France and with 
England, was fear of duplicity. Neither could trust the other. 
Each insisted that the other should commit itself first; neither 
would consent, with the result that all came to naught. This was 
just what Philip expected. Naturally a French-EngKsh league 
would have seriously hampered him, but he had found by long 
and trying experience that when Elizabeth talked of marriage, 
she was only amusing herself with a polite fiction. Not once does 



43 6 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

he take the matter seriously. So the Spanish attitude was one of 
unconcern, which in itself added to the fear of both Elizabeth and 
Catherine, for each supposed some secret understanding with 
Spain on the part of the other. 

With such motives and in such troubled waters the negotiations 
went on. In the end Elizabeth could not "digest the incon- 
venience" of the proposed marriage, and failing to cement the 
new friendship of France and England by this form of alliance, 
it was then suggested that a political compact, not a marriage 
alliance, be made between the two powers.^ But there were 
great difhculties in the way of this project. For, although the 
English desired a closer union with France, they w^ere nevertheless 
not unprepared to treat with Spain, and to use the prospective 
aUiance with France for the purpose of bringing Philip II to 
terms. England was unwilling yet to be considered as an open 
enemy of Spain, in spite of the fact she was well aware of Alva's 
plot with Lord Seton and other Scotch and English refugees in 
Flanders.^ 

Trade considerations were of great influence in governing this 
attitude. England could not afford to forfeit her commercial 
intercourse with Spain and Flanders for the none-too-sure friend- 
ship of France, since the staple in Flanders was worth between 
two and three millions.^ France could not offer any staple or 

^ Walsingham to Lord Burghley: " . . . . and if he sees no hope then to 
further what he may the league." — C. S. P. For., January 17, 1572; Hatfield 
Papers, II, 46. 

2 Charles IX to M. de la Mothe-Fenelon: Directs him to inform the queen 
of England that the duke of Alva does all he can to encourage the 500 or 600 Eng- 
lish refugees in Flanders in their enterprise against England, in which they will 
be assisted by Lord Seton with 2,000 Scots, who have determined to seize on the 
prince of Scotland, and send him into Spain. Directs him and M. de Croc to 
watch and do all in their power to frustrate this design (C. 5. P. For., No. 330, 
May 2, 1572; cf, Introd., xii, xiii and No. 257). 

3 On the efforts of Alva to revive the commerce of Flanders see D'Aubigne, 
Book V, chap, xxxii, p. 265; C. S. P. For., Nos. 94, 95, January 28 and 31.. 1572; 
Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, chap, v; Altmeyer, Histoire des relations 
commerciales des Pays-Bas avec le Nord pendant le XVI siecle; Bruxelles, 1840; 
Reiffenberg, De I'etat de la population, des jabriques et des maniijactures des Pays- 
Bas pendant le XVe et le XVI^ siecle, Bruxelles, 1822. 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 437 

port advantages to England comparable with those England 
enjoyed elsewhere.' England accordingly proposed that the 
league be extended to include the Protestant princes of Germany 
and that they should join together "in defense against any who for 
matters of religion should use force against any of them;" sec- 
ondly, that France would bind herself not to support the cause of 
Mary Stuart in Scotland; and thirdly, that France would not seek 
any greater trade advantages in the Low Countries than she had in 
former times. France balked at the proposed extension of the 
alliance to Germany and it was dropped; as to Scotland, she was 
willing to make a partial sacrifice of honor for the sake of political 
advantage. ^ 

But England's fear of contributing to the aggrandizement of 
France was too keen to permit her to have free rein in the Nether- 
lands,^ though Walsingham proposed a way to prevent the pos- 
sibility of French ascendency there, and declared that the grandeur 
of France abroad was less to be feared by England than the con- 
tinuance of civil war in France or the destructive policy of Alva 
in the Netherlands. "^ Burghley was as cautious as his mistress. 
"If the seaports fall into the hands of the French," he wrote, 
"they will regulate not only the commerce of our merchants abroad 
but the sovereignty of the Channel, which belongs to us."^ The 

1 "The answer of the Merchant Adventurers to the French king's offer to 
establish a staple in France" in C. S. P. For., No. 515, July, 1572: It would be 
no commodity for them to have a privilege in France, as those things in which they 
are principally occupied, viz., white cloths, are chiefly uttered in Upper and Lower 
Germany. Besides, if they alter their old settled trade, they would also have to- 
seek for dressers and dyers in a place unacquainted with the trade. It is dan- 
gerous to have the vent of all the commodity of the realm in one country, especially 
seeing the French have small trade to England. There is besides such evil ob- 
servance of treaties and so evil justice in France. The drapers of France so much 
mislike the bringing of cloth into France that they will not endure it, insomuch as 
January last, by proclamation, all foreign cloth was banished. The converting 
of the whole trade of England into France would be hurtful to the navy, for that the 
ports there are so small that no great ship may enter. 

For the Merchant Adventurers in the sixteenth century see Burgon, Lije 
and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham, I, 185-89. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 278, April 20, 1572, Queen Elizabeth to Charles IX. 

3 Walsingham, ibid., No. 135. 

4 Ibid., No 143, September 26, 1571. 5 Ibid., No. 247. 



438 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

jealous determination of England to monopolize the commerce 
of the Low Countries was, the greatest obstacle to the forma- 
tion of the alliance. For England most of all feared lest France 
would not content herself with Flanders and Artois.^ 

In the delicate business of state which burdened him at this 
season, Charles IX showed more acumen than either his new-found 
friends of Protestant faith or the Catholics had expected to find, 
because while exerting himself to keep the peace with Spain on the 
one hand, on the other he endeavored to conciliate his Protestant 
subjects. Unlike his elder brother, Francis II, Charles IX was of 
strong physical frame, being big boned and vigorous, until the 
fatal taint of his heritage and his excesses undermined his con- 
stitution^ and brought on the disease of consumption of which he 
died. He was gross, even brutish in inclination, rejoicing in base 
physical sport and disinclined to books. ^ But in the present 

1 Walsingham to Lord Burghley: Has been asked whether that enterprise 
having good success, and the French king lending all his forces to the conquest of 
Flanders, the queen of England would be content to enter foot in Zealand, Middle- 
burgh being delivered into her hands. They fear that the French king will not 
be content with Flanders, whatsoever is promised (C S. P. For., No. 2,202, 
December 31, 1571). 

2 Rel. ven., I, 543; C. S. P. For., No. 687, February 15, 1570. Sir Henry 
Norris to Cecil. The King keeps his chamber, which they marvel not at who 
know his diet. 

3 For a character-sketch of Charles IX see Baschet, La diplomatie venitienne,- 
539-41; cf. Rel. ven., II, 43 and 161. Lord Buckhurst, in a letter to Queen 
Elizabeth of March 4, 1571, gives an account of one of Charles' hunting parties 
in the Bois de Vincennes, which illustrates his temperament. "After dinner,'' 
he relates, "the King rode to a warren of hares thereby, and after he had coursed 
with much pastime, he flew to the partridge with a cast of very good falcons; and 
that done, entered the park of Bois de Vincennes, replenished with some store of 
fallow deer. Understanding that Lord Buckhurst had a leash of greyhounds, he 
sent to him that he might put on his dogs to the deer, which he did, but found that 
the deer ran better for their lives than the dogs did for his pastime. After this the 
King and all the gentlemen with him fell to a new manner of hunting, chasing the 
whole herd with their drawn swords, on horseback, so far forth as they being em- 
bosked were easily stricken and slain; they spared no male deer, but killed of all 
sorts without respect, like hunters who sought not to requite any part of their 
travail with delight to eat of the slain venison." — C. S. P. For., No. Ij'sSq, March 
4, 1571. In the spring of 1573 the French consul in Alexandria sent Charles three 
trained leopards for deer-hunting (Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, No. 51). In 
June, 1571, the King was somewhat seriously injured while hunting, by striking 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 439 

politics Charles IX showed little of the rashness of his physical 
nature/ Nevertheless the King went farther than caution ap- 
proved in dealing with his new-found friends. He would have 
disarmed the suspicion of Spain, and the Guises^ to some degree, 
at least, if he had drawn close to the duke of Montmorency, whose 
moderate Catholicism, however impeachable, was not the de- 
tested heresy of the French Protestants. But instead of so 
doing, the King, unable to dissemble as much as his mother, 
openly manifested a great admiration for the admiral Coligny, 
than whom neither the Guises nor Spain had a more resolute foe. 
The admiral was received in Paris upon his arrival there early in 
September, 1571, with distinguished honors.^ His popularity 

his head against the branch of a tree (C. .S. P. For., No. 1,777, June 8, 15 71). 
In March, 1572, he again was injured (letter of the King to the duke of Anjou, 
March 21, 1572, in Coll. Pichon, No. 28). His passion for the chase often led him 
to neglect the business of state, conduct which Coligny once sharply reproved 
(C. 5. P. For., No. 2,156, November 29, 1571), and he was frequently ill from 
fatigue or exposure (L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 301). The King himself in- 
spired the French translation of a Latin treatise of the sixteenth century on hunting, 
by Louis Leroy de Coutances, Libre du roy Charles. His patronage also inspired 
another work on the same subject: "Du Fouilloux, La Venerie de lacques du 
Fouilloux, Gentil-homme, Seigneur dudit lieu, pays de Gastine, en Poitou. Dedise 
au Roy Tres-Chrestien Charles, neufiesme de ce nom. Avec plusieurs Receptes 
et Remedes pour guerir les Chiens de diverses maladies. Avec Privilege du Roy. 
A Poitiers, Par les de Marnefz, et Bouchetz, freres. circa 1565." Charles IX was 
also given to low practical jokes. For example this is reported of him from Paris, 
September 18, 1573: The King, in an old cloak and evil-favoured hat, withdrew 
himself "to a little house upon the bridge from all the ladies, and there cast out 
money upon the people to get them together, and made pastime to cast out buckets 
of water upon them while they were scrambling for the money." — C. S. P. For., 
Paris, September 18, 1573. 

1 Walsingham reported to Burghley in August 12, 1571: "This prince is of 
far greater judgment than outwardly appears. There is none of any account within 
his realm whose imperfections and virtues he knows not," although, he adds, "those 
who love him lament he is so overmuch given to pleasure." — Ibid., No. 1,921. 

2 In May 15 71 the Guises were in discredit. The duke went to Joinville, the 
cardinal of Lorraine to Rheims, the duke of Mayenne started for Turkey. Guise 
did not come back to Paris till January 1572 (Bouille, Histoire des dues de Guises, 
II, Book IV, chap. iv). 

3 "He appeared at all hours near his majesty's chair upon the same terms as 
the lords who had never left the court" (C. 5. P. Ven., No. 576, September 15, 
1570). Coligny first became a member of the conseil du roi at this time (Soldan, 
Vor d. St. Barthomdusnacht, 39). Blois was practically the capital of France at 



44° THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

with the King was at once a menace and a challenge to Philip II 
and the Guises.' An added difficulty, as the result of this policy, 
was that Catherine de Medici, seeing her son so well affected to- 
ward the admiral, grew jealous of the latter's influence, lest it 
supplant her own, and intrigued against him. 

Despite the failure of the marriage alliance, France still had 
two strings to the Ulysses bow she was drawing against Spain- 
support of the Dutch, and the union of France by means of the 
marriage of Henry of Navarre and the princess Marguerite. Spain's 
suspicions that the Huguenot naval preparations at La Rochelle 
were in favor of the Dutch'' had not been based on groundless suspi- 
cion. William of Orange's own brother, Louis of Nassau, had re- 
mained in France after the Peace of St. Germain, urging an alliance 
between France and England against Spain, ^ or else French inter- 
vention in the Netherlands.-^ The count of Nassau enlarged upon 

this time. Paris was avoided both to save creating suspicion among the Huguenots 
and because of its Guisard sympathies. "He would change from white to black 
the moment he was in Paris" said Walsingham of the King. Capefigue, Hist, 
de la reforme, III, 92, points out Blois was "le siege naturel d'un gouvernement 
qui voulait s'eloigner du catholocisme fervent. Place a quelques lieues d'Orleans, 
donnant la main a la Rochelle, et par la Rochelle, se liant au Poitou, a la Saintonge, 
au Beam." 

1 The King conceives of no other subject better than of the admiral, and there 
is great hope that he will use him in matters of the greatest trust, for he begins to 
see the insufficiency of others, some being more addicted to others than to him, 
others more Spanish than French, or given more to private pleasures than public 
affairs (C. 5. P. For., No. 1,921, August 12, 1571). 

2 Alva to Philip II, April 5, May 22, 1572, in Gachard, Carres pondance de 
Philippe II, II, 239. In December, 1570, the marshal Cosse was sent to 
La Rochelle. In March, 1571, Cosse and Biron were sent a second time. 

3 See Walsingham, Letter of August 12, 15 71, to Leicester. He gained a 
great ascendency over Charles IX (Languet, Epist. ad Camer., 132-36, 140. 
"Count Ludovic is the King's avowed pensioner." — C. S. P. For., No. 
2,156, November 29, 1571. Some of his correspondence is in Archives de la maison 
d^ Orange-Nassau, III. 

4 On the secret interview of Charles IX, Louis of Nassau, and La Noue at 
Blois, see D'Aubigne, Book VI, chap, i, 282; Memoires de la Huguerye, I, 25. 
The Dutch cause suffered fearfully in this autumn. On November i and 2 a 
frightful storm made terrible inundations on the coast; hundreds of vessels were 
wrecked; in West Frisia alone nearly 20,000 persons were drowned {^Archives de 

a maison d'' Orange-Nassau, III, 385). 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 441 

the vast designs of the Spanish monarch and showed how sinister 
they were to France as well as Holland, artfully alluding to the 
peace of Cateau-Cambresis, "a peace dishonorable to France;" 
he dwelt upon the tyranny of Alva and the horrors of the inquisi- 
tion; he demonstrated that all the inhabitants of the Low Coun- 
tries, both Catholics and Protestants, hated the Spanish domina- 
tion; that all the maritime towns were ready to receive French and 
Dutch garrisons, if but those of Spain could be driven out; that 
with the sea-power of France thrown into the scale, the Dutch 
could conquer Spain; and finally proposed the formation of an 
international league to overthrow Spain, and asserted that France 
might acquire Flanders and Artois and the empire Brabant, 
Guelders, and Luxembourg as reward of their services. So 
alluring was the prospect portrayed to Charles IX that he almost 
cast off the mask he wore of pretended friendship for Spain.' 
He told Philip's minister, Alava, than whom "there was no 
prouder man or one more disdainful in countenance"^ when the 
ambassador complained to the French King that certain ships of 
the prince of Orange were being harbored at La Rochelle,-^ that 
"his master should not look to give laws to France. "^ 

1 For details, see Capefigue, III, 44. Charles IX gave evasive replies to all 
the remonstrances of the Spanish ambassador (Languet, Epist. seer., I, 177, 
August 15, 1571). 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 1,578, Walsingham to Cecil; Neg. Tosc, III, 694. 

3 Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pdys-Bas, II, 239 — Alva 
to Philip II, April 5, 1572; cf. p. 250; Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 
441. The Prince of Orange in 1569 began the practice of issuing letters of marque 
and reprisal in virtue of his position as sovereign prince of Orange. As a result in 
the next year the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay were crowded with vessels 
hostile to Spain. The most famous of these marauders soon destined to become 
known as the "Beggars of the Sea" was Adrian de Bergues. On one occasion 
within the space of two days, he overhauled and captured two merchant fleets, the 
one of 40, the other of 60 sail (Arch, de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 351). 
Upon the importance of La Rochelle as a seaport, see La Noue, chap, xxviii. 
Some of Strozzi's correspondence when in command of the fleet before La Rochelle 
in 1572 is in F. Fr., XV, 555; cf. Neg. Tosc, III, 760-63. 

4C 5. P. For., No. 1,921, August 12, 1571. Languet makes Charles IX's 
reply less emphatic than this. Languet, Episi. seer., I, 177, August 15, 1571. I am 
inclined to believe that Walsingham colored the anecdote. Languet shows the 
hesitations and vacillations of Charles IX, pp. 132, 136, 140. The Spanish 



442 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Meantime the proposed marriage of Henry of Navarre to 
Marguerite, the King's sister, progressed. A full year before the 
nuptials were concluded, the jewels and apparel for the ceremony 
were already provided. The difficulty of arranging a religious 
form for the ceremony acceptable to both Catholics and Protestants 
was the great hindrance.^ 

Again Spain made unavailing protest. Henry of Bourbon still 
bore the title of king of Navarre, though the kingdom had been lost 
to the house long before his birth and was, in fact, entirely in the 
possession of Spain. Her fear was lest the new bond of marriage 

ambassador's grounds of fear for Flanders were the more substantial because the 
garrisons that had occupied St. Jean-d'Angely, Niort, Saintes, and Angouleme 
during the late war were newly stationed in the border fortresses of Picardy. 
To Alava's alarmed inquiry Charles IX blandly replied that "the reason why 
these troops were sent to the frontiers was to give them employment, because if 
the King had disbanded them all at once the soldiery might have mutinied for lack 
of pay" (C S. P. Ven., No. 499, February 19, 1571; No. 575, August i, 1571). 

I "The only impediment to the marriage between the prince of Navarre and 
the lady Margaret is religion." — C. S. P. For., No. 2,038, Walsingham to Cecil, 
September 16, 1571. The whole matter was referred to eight counselors to settle: 
those of the Huguenots were Jeanne d'Albret, La Noue, Louis of Nassau, and 
Francourt (C S. P. For., March 29, 1572; Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, 
III, 417). The Pope made objection that, aside from the difference of religion, the 
parents of Henry of Navarre and Marguerite of Valois were relatives within the third 
degree, and refused to grant the dispensation for the marriage {Nig. Tosc, III, 
712-14). To this demur the Huguenots triumphantly argued that it was not 
necessary for the Pope or any other priest to give dispensation, since it was a 
royal marriage and it was not fitting for the King's authority to be demeaned by 
that of the church (Claude Haton, II, 661). There was violent opposition by 
radical Huguenots, especially the pastors, to the marriage, and fear lest the Pope's 
refusal to grant a dispensation might lead to a rupture between France and Rome 
like that of England under Henry VIII {Neg. Tosc, III, 733 and 740). Finally 
it was arranged that the marriage should be celebrated by a priest of the church of 
Rome, and that Henry would accompany his wife to mass in the church where the 
ceremony was to be held, but that he was to retire before the service so that he was 
neither to be present at the mass nor hear it said (ibid., 662 and note, 663, note). 
The cardinal of Lorraine, with his usual "trimming" wrote to the queen mother: 
"Madame, je vous baise tres humblement les mains de ce qu'il vous plait me 
mander la conclusion du marriage de madame vostre fille, puisqu'il est au con- 
tentement de vos majestes at selon les desirs des catholiques." — Collection des 
autographes, No. 278, April 17, 1572. 

For the preliminaries of the marriage of Marguerite of Valois and Henry of 
Navarre see Revue des deux mondes, October i, 1884, pp. 560-64. 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 443 

might unite the parties of France in war for the acquisition of 
Navarre. It was in vain, however, that Spain sought to prey 
upon the fears of Charles IX, endeavoring to excite the King's 
jealousy against the growing power of the house of Bourbon and 
pointing out that of the twelve provinces of the kingdom ten were 
in the hands of governors who were bound by blood or interest 
to the Bourbons.' So eager were many of the gentry of France 
for war with Spain, either in Navarre or Flanders, that one of 
Coligny's officers, when asked whether France meant to lose the 
favorable opportunity of attacking Spain, scornfully rejoined, 
"What can we do ? We are good for nothing, for we have to deal 
with a scared King and a timid queen, who will not come to any 
decision." By December, 157 1, war with Spain was on every hp and 
the government began to collect money. ^ 

1 C. S. p. Ven., No. 516; August 15, 1571. Spain and France clashed in 
Switzerland, too, at this time. For Switzerland refused to permit forces to fight 
the Turk on the ground that the Swiss were unused to maritime warfare, yet the 
Grisons and the Tyrol raised two regiments for the French King {ibid., For., No. 
189, March 25, 1572, from Heidelberg or Strasburg). 

2 "There have been no other speeches but war with Spain" — Killegrew to 
Lord Burghley, Decembers, 1571; C. S. P. For., No. 2,163; cf. Neg. Tosc, III, 
dispatches of April 17 and 20, 1572 and C. S. P. For., Nos. 2,156, 2,162, Novem- 
ber 29, December 7, 1571. Alva fully expected war (Gachard, Correspondance 
de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, II, 259, Alva to Philip II, May 24, 1572). 

In the spring of 1572 Schomberg was dispatched to Germany to contract alliances 
with the Lutheran princes (Arch, de la maisoii d' Orange-Nassau III, 403; C S. P. 
For., No. 189, March 25, 1572). The German princes anticipated that if the Low 
Countries were united to the crown of France that power would become too formid- 
able. They wanted France to content herself with Flanders and Artois. As for 
Brabant and the other provinces that were once dependent upon the empire, their 
purpose was to put them upon their old footing and to give the government of 
them to some prince of Germany, who could not be other than the prince of 
Orange. Holland and Zealand were to be united to the crown of England 
(Walsingham, 143, French ed., letter of August 12, 1572 to Leicester). Yet 
momentous as the French project in the Low Countries was, it was but part of 
a grander scheme, for France aimed also to acquire a decisive influence in 
Germany, with the ultimate purpose of acquiring so great ascendency over the 
German states as to be able to transfer the crown of the empire, for centuries 
hereditary in the house of Hapsburg, to the head of the French prince (Rel. ven., 
1,445). This project was part of the mission of Schomberg in Germany {Arch, 
de la maison d^ Orange-Nassau, IV, Introd., 2X, 268-73). ^^ Germany the elector 



444 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

At this juncture, when all Europe was keyed to concert pitch 
of political tension, when anything seemed likely to happen and 
no one of the great powers dared make an overt move, the Gordian 
knot was cut. On April i, 1572, the most notable event in the Low 
Countries since the iconoclastic outburst occurred. For on that day 
the count van der March, commander of the Beggars of the Sea, 
captured the port of Brille. From that time onward the Dutch 
and Flemings had a maritime point of their own on the mainland 
and were no longer dependent on the precarious shelter of Enghsh 
and Norman ports. The effect of this blow to Spain was great. 
Within the week — on Easter Day — Flushing, and soon afterward 
Middelburg, rebelled against the billeting of Spanish troops sent 
by Alva to replace the Walloon garrison there. ^ 

The Gueux were masters of the sea and when Dordrecht also 
rebelled, the inland water routes were endangered too. No vessel 
could come from Holland, Guelders, or Frisia and no communica- 
tion could be made from the north with Brabant. Even Amster- 
dam could be starved and Alva determined to retire all his forces 
to Ghent and Antwerp.^ On April 14 William of Orange issued 
a proclamation from Dillenburg expressing his grief at the mis- 
eries suffered from the exactions, outrages, and cruelties inflicted 
by the Spaniards, and assured the people of his determination to 

of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse were strong partisans of France {ibid., 
IV, Introd., 25). 

The strongest advocate of France for the imperial crown was the elector 
palatine, who burned with an ambition to "Calvinize the world," and embraced 
with ardor a project which could not fail to redound to the honor of the Huguenots. 
The elector of Saxony and the landgrave were less complacent. The first was a 
friend of the emperor Maximilian and expressed his indignation at the imperial 
pretensions of Charles IX. Even William of Hesse, in spite of his hereditary 
attachment to the crown of France, returned a guarded reply (ibid., IV, Introd., 
28 and 123). 

^ The revolt took place on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1572. On the whole sub^ 
ject of the revolt of the Netherlands at this time see Janssen, History of the 
German People, VIII, chap, ii; La Graviere, "Les Gueux de Mer," Revue des deux 
mondes, September 15, 1891, p. 347; November, 1891, p. 98; January 15, 1892, 
p. 389. 

2 See the letter of President Viglius to Hopper in Arch, de la jnaison d'Orange- 
Nassaii III, 415, and C. S. P. For., No. 260, April 19, 1572. 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 445 

liberate the land from their tyranny. As many towns and ports 
had already recognized him as their ruler, he urged others to 
follow their example, pledging his word to use all his power to 
restore the ancient privileges and liberties of each.^ 

When news of these wondrous deeds reached France, Charles 
IX's hesitation was swept away by the combined fervor of Louis 
of Nassau and the admiral. On April 19, the Anglo-French 
treaty of alliance was signed at Blois.^ 

Du Plessis-Mornay, a young Huguenot gentleman of twenty- 
three, of marked literary ability and destined to be the intel- 
lectual leader of the Protestants in coming years, who had lately 
traveled through the Netherlands and visited England,^ in col- 
laboration with the admiral drew up a remarkable memorial 
advocating French intervention in the Low Countries,4 which 
Coligny presented to the King. English and French volunteers 
soon poured into the land.s Louis of Nassau left for Valen- 

1 Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 418-19. On the alliance 
concluded at the Frankfurt Fair see ibid., Ill, 448. For the whole subject consult 
Waddington, "La France et les protestants allemands sous les regnes de Charles 
IX et Henri III," Revue historique, XLII, 266 ff. 

2 The treaty of Blois provided for a defensive league between Queen Elizabeth 
and Charles IX and stipulated the amount of succor by sea or land to be rendered 
by either party in case of need; if either party were assailed for the cause of religion 
or under any other privileges and advantages for the pretext, the other was bound 
to render assistance; a schedule of the number and description of the forces to be 
mutually furnished, together with their rates of pay was annexed. De Frixa and 
Montmorency were sent to England to ratify the treaty. A full account of the 
gorgeous reception of Montmorency will be found in Holinshed and the Account 
Book of the Master of the Revels. The earl of Lincoln left for France, May 26, 
1572. He was instructed to say, if any mention was made of the Alenjon mar- 
riage, that Elizabeth felt offended by the way she had been treated in the Anjou 
negotiations and that in any case "the difference in age should make a full stay." 

Text of the treaty of Blois in Dumont, Corps diplomatique, V, Part I, 211. 
The letter of the King to Elizabeth after the signature is in Bulletin de la societe du 
prot. jrangais, XI, 72. 

3 Memoires et correspondance de Du Plessis-Mornay, I, 36-38 (Paris, 1824). 

4 Ibid., II, 20-39; cf. Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France. 
248. On the authorship of the memoir consult same volume Appendix II. 

5 C. S. P. For., No. 419, Captain Thomas Morgan to Lord Burghley from 
Flushing, June 16, 1572; Ga.c\ia.rd, Correspondance de Philippe II, II, 268, Alva 
to Philip II, July 18, 1572. 



446 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

ciennes, which had successfully revolted, accompanied by La Noue 
and Genlis.' On May 24, by a stratagem, Genlis secured possession 
of Mons, one of the most important fortresses to Spain in the Low 
Countries in the present state of mind that France was in.^ From 
this point of vantage he wrote hopefully to Charles IX for more 
soldiers, a "good minister," a surgeon, some cannon founders, and 
drugs.^ While these events were happening on land, on the sea 
the Zealanders attacked and dispersed the Spanish fleet in the 
Sluys on June 8, and seized twenty merchantmen under its con- 
voy :"* and, to the elation of France,^ far down in the Bay of 
Biscay the fleet of Flushing three days later scattered another of 
Spain's armadas.^ All Holland, Amsterdam and Rotterdam ex- 
cepted, was lost to Spain.'^ Sir Humphrey Gilbert with 1,200 
English and some French and Walloons landed in the Low Coun- 
tries, on July ID, and captured Sluys and Bruges.^ Money poured 
in upon William of Orange, who in June went to Frankfurt to 
purchase supplies and enlist men.^ The duke of Alva was in 
desperate straits. The Walloons everywhere in the army mutinied 
and deserted, and he was short of munitions. '° 

1 La Popeliniere, XXVII, io8; Fillon Collection, No. 133, Charles IX to the 
Duke of Longueville, governor of Picardy from Blois, May 3, 1572. Enjoins him 
to repair the fortifications of Picardy, and to be on guard against the duke of Alva, 
who was arming under the pretext of repressing the Gueux. 

2 Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II, II, 356 and note 3; Archives de la 
maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 425-26; Mem. de la Huguerye, 105; see La Pope- 
liniere's account (XXVII, 107), of the situation of the city. It was the capital of 
Hainault. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 406, June 10, 1572, to Torcy. 

4 Archives de la maison d^ Orange-Nassau, III, 437. 

5 Coll. Godefroy, CCLVIII, No. 8. French dispute with Spain over naviga- 
tion of the Sluys. 

6 Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 441-42. 

7 In ibid., 463-64, 467-68, will be found a list of the principal officers of 
the prince of Orange and of the towns at his devotion (cf. C. S. P. For., No. 374, 
July, 1572). 

8 Ibid., Nos. 478, 511, July, 1572. 

9 The estates met at Dordrecht on July 15 {Archives de la maison d'Orange- 
Nassau, III, 447). 

1° He had received his recall and the duke of Medina-Coeli had been sent to 
succeed him, and at this hour was on the ground urging a policy of moderation 
(Raumer, I, 202). Yet Alva refused to give up (Archives de la maison d'Orange- 
Nassau, III, 437). 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 447 

But such successes were too great to last. Louis of ^sfassau 
found he could not hope to hold Mons for long with the sister 
forces at his command and sent Genlis back to France for re- 
inforcements. Charles TX, under pressure from Coligny, pro- 
vided men and money secretly, but Genlis' rehef column was 
intercepted on July i6 and captured by the duke of Alva.^ It 
was only a question of time before Mons surrendered.^ The 
blow was a heavy one to France. It mattered little to France that 
French subjects were killed or taken prisoner during the siege. 
But it was of tremendous consequence to France that Alva found 
on Genlis' person a letter written by Charles IX to Louis of Nassau 
on April 27, 1572, in which the King said that he was resolved 
as soon as the condition of affairs at home permitted him, to 
employ the armies of France for the liberation of the Low Coun- 
tries. ^ Well might Alva's secretary write " I have in my possession 
a letter of the king of France which would strike you with aston- 
ishment if you could see it. "4 Spain possessed indubitable proof 
at last of French duplicity. 

1 The march of the Spanish army that intercepted Genlis was so accurate as 
to give rise to the belief that Alva had prior information. It is uncertain. Men- 
doza, who was with the Spanish army (Commentaires, Book VI, chap, vii) seems 
to confirm the suspicion. His account (chaps, vii-xiii) is very vivid. Only 
thirty of Genlis' men escaped; the rest were either killed or drowned. On the 
warnings given to Genlis, see a relation in Archives curieuses, VII. There is 
an unpubHshed account of Genlis' defeat in F. Fr., 18,587, fol. 541. According to 
La Huguerye, 125, he was strangled in prison. 

2 It did so on September 19. See a letter of William of Orange to his brother 
John, September 34, 1572, in Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 511. 
La Noue prophesied the fall of the city when he saw the heights of Jemappes 
occupied by the troops of Spain (Hauser, La Noue, 33). 

3 As late as August 11, 1572, the Prince of Orange was still looking for the 
coming of the admiral Coligny into the Low Countries (see a letter of his to his 
brother John, of this date in Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, III, 490). 

4 Albornoz to secretary of state Cayas, from Brussels, July 19, 1572 (see 
Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, II, 269). A note of 
M. Gachard adds: "Cette lettre, datee de St. Leger, le 27 avril 1572, etait ecrite 
par Charles IX au comte Louis de Nassau. II y disait qu'il etait determine, autant 
que les occasions et la disposition de ses affaires le permettraient a employer les 
forces que Dieu avait mises en sa -main a tirer les Pays-Bas de I'oppression sous 
laquelle ils gemissaient. Une traduction espagnole de cette lettre existe aux 



448 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The capture of Genlis and the knowledge that Spain had pene- 
trated the whole secret of her design, filled the French government 
with consternation, though Charles IX affected a show of courage 
he did not feel.' That consternation became abject dismay when 
it was learned that Elizabeth of England, partially out of reluc- 
tance to have war with Spain, more because of fear lest French 
foothold in the Low Countries would jeopardize her commercial 
ascendency there, repudiated the treaty of alliance.^ As one 
reviews the months before the massacre one asks just how far 
Elizabeth herself may have been responsible for it. It was she 
who, by her tortuous and insincere policy alarmed Charles IX 
and Catherine, causing the Flanders expedition to be abandoned ; 
it was this which caused Coligny to turn upon Catherine in the 
King's council, saying, "This war the King renounced. God 
grant he may not find himself involved in another less easy to 
renounce." The line comes straight from Ehzabeth surely, but 
can be emphasized too strongly. That some blame must rest 
on the English cannot be denied, however. Did Catherine de 
Medici plan the massacre of St. Bartholomew to save herself from 
the wrath of the Huguenots ? Or, in her terror did she seek to 

Archives de Simancas, papeles de Esiado, liasse 551." Charles IX. repudiated its 
authenticity (see a letter to Mondoucet, French agent in Flanders, dated August 1 2, 
1572, in Bulletin de la Commission d'hist. de Belgique, series II, IV, 342). 
The admiral Coligny, without knowing of the incriminating evidence in Alva's 
hands after the failure before Mons, urged Charles IX to declare war upon Spain 
at once as the shortest and safest way out of the difficulty (Brantome, Vie des 
grandes capitaines jrangois — M'l'admiral de Chatillon). 

1 As late as August 21, France had the hardihood to protest her innocence 
of any enterprise in Flanders (Gachard, Carres pondance de Philippe II sur les 
Pays-Bas, II, 271, Phihp to Alva, August 2, 1572; ibid., II, 273, Alva to Philip 
August 21, 1572. 

2 There is in existence the record of an extremely curious conversation of the 
admiral Coligny upon this subject with Henry Middelmore, one of the English 
agents in France, in which the latter frankly said: "Of all other thinges we colde 
least lyke that France shulde commaunde Flawnders, or bryng it under theyr 
obedience, for therein we dyd see so apparawntlye the greatnes of our dainger, 
and therefore in no wyse colde suffer it." — Ellis, Original Letters, 2d series, III, 
6. I find the same thought expressed in a letter of Thomas Parker to one Hogyns, 
written from Bruges, June 17, 1572. See Appendix XXIX. 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 449 

appease the wrath of the Cathohc dragon with human lives ? 
Was the massacre of St. 'Bartholomew the bloody price of Spain's 
satisfaction ? 

But there is another element to be considered in any endeavor 
to unravel the causes of that event. All the art of Catherine de 
Medici for years past had been expended in an endeavor to main- 
tain control by balancing the parties against one another. At 
this minute she was insanely jealous of the admiral Coligny, whose 
political ascendency seemed all the greater because of the conduct 
of the Protestants who crowded Paris for the coming nuptials, 
enjoying their superficial popularity with too much arrogance in 
many cases, and angering the sentiment of the Parisians, the most 
Catholic populace in France, 

The massacre seems primarily due to the jealousy and hatred 
felt by Catherine de Medici toward Coligny on account of his 
great ascendency over Charles IX, coupled with panic after the 
failure of her deliberate attempt to have him murdered, and fear 
of war with Spain — a fear all the greater because of England's 
desertion of France in Flanders at this critical moment, lest 
English commercial ascendency there should suffer.' It was a 
crime of fear, a horrible resource in a difficult emergency; partly 
a craven attempt to placate Spain for what had been done against 
her; partly a crime of jealousy. Perhaps jealousy of Coligny 
was even a stronger motive than fear of Spain. The attempt upon 
Coligny 's life on August 22, would seem to indicate this.^ Was 
the general slaughter of the Huguenots the consequence of the 
failure of this attempt ? If the shot of August 22 had killed the 
admiral, would the massacre have taken place ? I think not. 
The failure to kill the admiral was the immediate occasion of the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. If Coligny had been killed 
then and there, the massacre probably would not have happened. 

1 On this last phase see Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis, IV, Introd., 
xlix ff., and Froude, Hist, of England, X, 312. 

2 For a particular account see Whitehead, Gas par d de Coligny, Admiral of 
France, 257-64. Two of Lord Burghley's correspondents give accounts 
(C. 5. P. For., Nos. 537, 538, August 22, 1572). See also an interesting extract from 
the registers of the Bureau of the Ville of Paris in Archives curieuses, VII, 211. 



45° THE WARS OF RELIGION IN PRANCE 

The failure to compass the death of the admiral made Catherine 
frantic with mingled rage and fear lest the Huguenots concen- 
trated in Paris would rise in reprisal. She took council with 
Guise, Anjou, Madame de Nemours, and Gondi, the Italian 
bishop of Paris. The resolution of the King, who at first beheved 
that the duke of Guise was the author of the attempted assas- 
sination, was beaten down by his mother, and when his fierce 
instincts were at last aroused, the way was easy. The hatred of 
Paris could be relied upon to do its worst, under the guidance of 
the provost who was taken into the plot.' 

There is no need to detail the history of this famous day. At 
one-thirty on the morning of August 24 the tocsin sounded from the 
tower of St. Germain-l'Auxerrois. Coligny was the first victim. 
From the Louvre the murderous spirit spread to the Ville, to the 
Cite, to the university quarter. Henry of Navarre and the prince 
of Conde saved themselves by abjuration. Montgomery escaped 
on a fleet horse to the south. Estimates of the dead are so different 
that any positive opinion is impossible. La Popeliniere gives 
1,000 for Paris, the Tuscan ambassador 3,000, Davila 10,000. 
Brantome says nearly 4,000 bodies were thrown into the Seine. 

From Paris the massacre spread to the provinces. On August 
25 the fury reached Meaux and Troyes; on the 26th La Charite, 
on the 27th Orleans and Bourges, on the 28th Caen, on the 30th 
Lyons. Bordeaux and Toulouse followed. At Rouen, Carrouges, 
the governor, would not obey the King's warrant until doubly 
convinced, when he retired to his country house and refused to 
execute it, though he did not have the courage to prevent the 
massacre, as was the case at Dijon, Limoges, Blois, Nantes.^ 

1 For the order of Marcel, provost of the merchants, immediately before the 
massacre, see Arch, cur., VII, 212. On the council of August 24, see Cavalli, 85. 
Charles IX at first denied any responsibility and blamed the Guises. When this 
proved a dangerous explanation, he asserted the massacre was made to foil a 
similar plot on the part of the Huguenots. 

2 At Blois not only the Huguenots were not mistreated but the city became 
a city of refuge (D'Aubigne, III, 344, note 6). The Mayor of Nantes refused to 
carry out the orders for massacre {Bulletin de la Soc. du prot. jrang., I, 59). 
Hotman was saved from the massacre at Bourges by his students; on the massacre 
at Troyes see the relation in Arch, cur., VII, 287; and for that at Lyons an article 
by Puyroche in Bulletin de la Soc. du prot. frang., XVIII, 305, 353, 401; for 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 451 

There is no reason for doubting that the massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew was unpremeditated. It was not plotted years before, 
or even many days before. The light of modern investigation' 

Normandy, ibid., VI, 461; Revue retrospective, XII, 142 (Lisieux); on the mas- 
sacre at Rouen, Floquet, Hist, du parlement de Normandie, III, 126 ff.; on the 
massacre at Bordeaux see Arch, de la Gironde, VIII, 337. De Thou, Book LIII, 
says there were 264 victims. On the massacre at Toulouse see Bull, de la Soc. du 
prot. jrang., August 15, 1886; Hist, du Languedoc, V, 639. On the non-execu- 
tion of the massacre in Burgundy see Bull, de la Soc. du prot. frang., IV, 164, 
and XIV, 340 (documents). The reason for this leniency was the nearness of 
Burgundy to the frontier. 

I The contemporary literature on the massacre is given by M. Felix Bour- 
quelot, editor of the Mem. de Claude Haton in a long note in II, 673-76. Sum- 
marized, these opinions are the following: i. The massacre was done in order 
to avert a massacre by the Huguenots, after the wounding of Coligny. This was 
the belief of Marguerite of Navarre (Memoires, ed. Guessard, 264). 

2. The massacre was premeditated by Charles IX and his mother from the 
time of the Bayonne conference. 

3. The massacre was intended to be a military stroke, the government pre- 
ferring to attempt their overthrow in this way rather than by battle on the open 
field. 

Salviati, the papal nuncio, who ought to have known, explicitly denies the 
rumor that a conspiracy was on foot by the Huguenots. In a dispatch of Septem- 
ber 2 (I quote the French translation of Chateaubriand who copied them for the 
Paris archives) he says: "Cela n'en demeurera pas moins faux en tous points, 
et ce sera une honte pour qui est a meme de connaitre quelques choses aux affaires 
de ce monde de le croire." In reply to the Pope's urgency to extirpate the Protes- 
tants, he wrote on September 22: "Je lui fis part de la tres grand consolation 
qu'avaient procure au Saint Pere les succes obtenus dans ce royaume par une 
grace singuliere de Dieu, accordee a toute la Chretiente sous son pontifirat. Je 
fis connaitre le desir qu'avait sa Saintete, de voir pour la plus grande gloire de Dieu, 
et le plus grand bien de France, tous les heretiques extirpes du royaume, et j'ajoutai 
que dans cette vue le Saint Pere estimait que tres a propos que Ton revoqua I'edit 
de pacification." On October nth, he writes: "Le Saint Pere, ai je dit en 
eprouve une joie infinie, et a ressenti une grande consolation d'apprendre que sa 
Majeste avait commande d'ecrire qu'elle esperait qu'avant peu la France n'aurait 
plus d'Huguenots." Cardinal Orsini, who was dispatched as legate from Rome 
to congratulate Charles IX and to support the exhortations of Salviati, describes, 
his audience with the King on December 19. Orsini assured the King that he 
had eclipsed the glory of all his house, but urged him to fulfil his promise that not 
a single Huguenot should be left alive in France: "Se si rigardavva all' objetto 
della gloria, non potendo niun fatto de suoi antecessori, se rettamente si giudicava, 
agguagliarsi al glorioso ac veramente incomparabili di sua Maesta, in liberar 
con tanta prudentia et pieta in un giorno solo il suo regno da cotanta diabolica 
peste .... Esortai .... che con essendo servitio ni di Dio, ni di sua Maesta, 
lasciar fargli nuovo piede a questa maladetta setta, volesse applicare tutto il suo 



452 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

has proved this to the satisfaction of every unprejudiced historian, 
whether Protestant or Cathohc. The combination of causes that 
led to the action; the motives of the principals; the responsibility 
for the massacre are today known with as much certainty as moral 
forces having relative and not absolute values can be.. Even 
unprejudiced contemporaries, La Noue and Henry IV himself, 
did not believe the massacre to have been premeditated. A general 
slaughter of the Protestants was an old idea, but never regarded 
as a practical one, save by the papacy. The guilt of the massacre 
in all its monstrous proportions and consequences rests upon 
Catherine de Medici first of all. Fundamentally considered, it 
was the crime of a tigerishly hateful and essentially cowardly 
woman's heart. Catherine was the author and instigator of it. 
The Guises entered into the plot chiefly to avenge themselves upon 
the admiral and really had little interest in prosecuting it beyond 

pensiero e tutte le fore sue per istirparla affatto, recandosi a memoria quelle che 
ella haveva fatto scrivere a sua Santita da Monsignor il Nuntio, che infra pochi 
giorni non sarebbe pi un ugonotto in tutto il suo regno." — Bibliotheque 
Nationale MSS ItaL, 1,272. The Pope proclaimed a jubilee in honor of the 
massacre. 

Subjoined is a list of the leading authors and articles upon this subject. The 
most recent consideration which sifts all preceding investigation is that by Whitehead, 
Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral oj France, London, 1904, chaps, xv, xvi; Phillipson, 
"Die romische Curie und die Bartholomausnact," West Europa, II, 255 if.; Bague- 
nault de Puchesse, "La St. Barthelemy: ses origines, son vrai caractere, ses suites," 
R. Q. H., July-October, 1866; "La premeditation de St. Barthelemy," R. Q. H., 
XXVII, 272 ff.; Boutaric, "La St. Barthelemy d'apres les Archives du Vatican," 
Bih. de Vecole des Charles, ser. Ill, 3; Theiner, Continuation of Baronius, I 
(Salviati's letters); Gandy, "Le massacre de St. Barthelemy," Revue hist., July, 
1879; cf. review in Bull, de la Soc. prot. frangais; Rajna, in Archivio storico 
ital., ser. V, No. XXIII, January 15, 1899; Michiel et CavalH, "La Saint-Bar- 
thelemy devant le senat de Venise. Relation des ambassadeurs .... traduite 
et ann. par W. Martin, Paris, 1872; Soldan, Hist. Taschenbuch, 1S54; G. P. 
Fisher, "The Massacre of St. Bartholomew," New Englander, January, 1880; 
Loiseleur, "Les nouvelles controverses sur la St. Barthelemy," Rev. hist., XV, 
1883, p. 83; "Nouveaux documents sur la St. Barthelemy," Rev. hist., IV, 1877, 
p. 345; Tamizey de Larroque, "Deux lettres de Charles IX," R. Q. H., Ill, 1867, 
p. 567; " La St. Barthelemy, lettres de MM. Baguenault de Puchesse et G. Gandy," 
R. Q. H., XXVIII, 1880, p. 268; Dareste, "Un incident de I'histoire diplomatique 
de Charles IX," Acad, des sc. moral, etc., LXXI-II, 1863, p. 183; Laugel, "Coligny " 
Revue des deux mojides, September, 1883, pp. 162-S5. 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 453 

his death. ^ The duke of Anjou and Tavannes were the fanatics. 
Charles IX was the creature of his mother's mahgn influence and 
the victim of his own ferocious temperament which he had long 
indulged, and to which he now allowed monstrous license. For 
the rest the massacre of St. Bartholomew was perpetrated by 
men whose natures were compounded out of religious bigotry, 
political enmity, personal resentment or mere rufiEianism and love 
of violence. The massacre of St. Bartholomew could not possibly 
have been of the remotest political benefit to any person. It was 
both a crime and a blunder. But Catherine de Medici was a 
ruler whose political conduct was governed by her personal feelings 
and prejudices. In the crisis in which she was, she had not the 
acumen to discern, or the courage to dare to follow", the course that 
lay open before her if she had had eyes to see and an under- 
standing instead of a passionate heart. That course lay toward 
Italy and not toward the Netherlands. If France had reasserted 
her claims to Naples and Milan, then in the possession of Philip II, 
the nation would have been united in a common cause that would 
have appealed to ancient pride and achievement as well as existing 
animosity against Spain. England would have had no reason to 
be jealous, for her hand would have been free in Flanders. More- 
over, in Italy France might have looked for support from Tuscany 
and Ferrara. Switzerland would have supported the enterprise; 
Venice would have made no opposition and the Emperor, for all 
his Spanish attachments, could not have done so. With the 
Turk in the Mediterranean on her side, France could have gone 
into war with Spain and the Pope without fear and with great 
promise of success.^ 

1 The duke of Guise is not so bloody, neither did he Icill any man himself but 
saved divers; he spake openly that for the admiral's death he was glad, for he knew 
him to be his enemy. But for the rest, the King had put to death such as might 
have done him very good service (C. S. P. For., No. 584, September, 1572). 

2 Montluc clearly appreciated that this was the case and developed the idea 
in his Commentaires, VI, 231-33. Quite as remarkable are the observations of the 
Venetian ainbassador: Rel. ven., II, 171. Spain anticipated the possibility of a 
French aitjmpt to recover the Milanais: "The King of Spain being suspicious of 
the said league has given commission that Italy and Milan be in readiness." — 
C. S. P. Foi\, No. 120, Febraary 7, 1572, from Venice. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE FOURTH CIVIL WAR 

The massacre of St. Bartholomew, like a bolt out of a clear sky, 
precipitated a new storm — the fourth civil war. La Rochelle was 
the storm center, though Sancerre and Montauban were rocks of 
safety for the Huguenots of the center and south of France, no 
less than three thousand Protestants and Politiques of Toulouse 
finding refuge in the latter place. ^ When Charles IX's murderous 
passion was overpast and reason returned, he attempted to avert 
a new war by offering favorable terms to the Rochellois.^ But 
when the town fortified itself and refused to trust the "favorable" 
terms offered by Biron and turned toward England for aid, the 
marshal was commanded to take the city by storm. ^ The govern- 
ment was heavily embarrassed in its military preparations. Money 
was scarce and the rate of interest 15 per cent.* Soldiers of 
judgment and experience pointed out that without either Swiss 
or Germans the King could not successfully batter the town, 
"for Frenchmen were not fit for the keeping of artillery, or to 
make the body of the 'battle' of footmen," and the Swiss diet 
refused to let France draw more mercenaries from the Alpine 
lands. The King was equally unsuccessful in his endeavor to 
recruit footmen in Germany.^ 

1 Hist, du Languedoc, V, 528, note, 544, note 2. On the siege of Montauban, 
see La Bret, Histoire de Montauban, 2 vols., 1841. There is a letter of the marshal 
Brissac on the resistance in F. Fr., No. 15, 555, fol. 104. 

2 See abstract of Biron's commission in C. S. P. For., November 6, 1572; 
cf. Correspondance inedite d'Armand de Gontaut Biron, marechal de France, par 
E. de Barthelemy, Paris, 1874, from the originals at St. Petersburg. 

3 Coll. des autographes, 1844, No. 104, Charles IX to the duke of Longueville, 
November 4, 1572. 

4 C. S. P. For., No. 640, November 13, 1572; cf. No. 637; Archives de la maison 
d' Orange-Nassau, IV, 38-39, letter of Brunynck, secretary to the prince of Orange, 
to John of Nassau, December, 1572. 

5 C. S. P. For., Nos. 667, 673, §§17-20 (1572). 

454 



THE FOURTH CIVIL WAR 455 

The enigmatical policy of Elizabeth was also a deterrant in 
the beginning of the war. While she sent the earl of Worcester 
into France in January, 1573, to treat of commerce and to dangle 
the prospect of her marrying Charles IX' s youngest brother, the 
duke of Alenfon, before the eyes of the French court,' the English 
queen did not turn a deaf ear to the petition of the Rochellois." If 
after the massacre there was less fear of strengthening France by 
giving aid to the Low Countries, on the contrary it became doubly 
necessary for England not to break with Spain, so that the policy 
of Queen Elizabeth was a timid and hesitating one. 

When England's policy was perceived to be so weak, the govern- 
ment pushed forward its military preparations against the city and 
the Italian artillery commander,- Strozzi, in mid-December, took 
Marans, not far from La Rochelle, and put the garrison to the 
sword. But the Rochellois maintained the ramparts against all 
onslaught. The attacking army, under command of the duke of 
Anjou, lay in the dike under the curtain of the town walls, but 
could get no farther. To add to the discomfiture of the Catholics, 
the King's army was in want of food-stuffs on account of the rising 
of the country roundabout, especially Poitou and Limousin.^ 

The dearth, however, was more than local. The winter of 
1572-73 was again a hard one, and though the spring of 1573 
opened early and mild, there came recurrence of cold; so much so 
that processions were held, imploring the grace of God upon the 
fields where much of the grain was killed. The ensuing high 

1 C. S. p. For., Nos. 683 and 755, Worcester to the Queen, February 5, 1573. 

2 This petition is a remarkable compound of current politics and biblical 
history. In it the inhabitants of La Rochelle, her " tres obeissains fidelles subjects," 
beg that she will consider and follow the example of Constantine, who broke off 
all alliance with his friend Licinius to whom he had given his sister in marriage, 
on account of his tyranny practiced on the Christians of the East. They remind 
her also of the evil done by Herod in keeping his rash oath. She ought not there- 
fore to keep the league with those who wish to exterminate her people in Guyenne, 
which belongs to her, and whose arms she bears. If she will succour them they 
will willingly expose their lives and goods in order to acknowledge her as their 
sovereign and natural princess {ibid., No. 682, 1572). 

3 Ibid., No. 800, February 28, 1573; No. 948, May 3, 1573; Chroniques Fon- 
tenaisiennes, 166, 167. 



456 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

prices of grain were made higher owing to the fact that great 
amounts of it were stored by the dealers against the market. 
There were bread riots and popular tumults in various localities 
and many towns fixed a maximum price. This condition of 
things aggravated the state of war throughout the country. Multi- 
tudes of people crowded the towns. These refugees brought 
their possessions with them, their linen and household goods, their 
sheep and their cattle, which they were forced to sell for a song 
in order to buy bread. 

The hard times also led to the migration of people from province 
to province and increased the vagabondage that already existed. 
The hunger was so great that men and women devoured vegetables, 
and even grain, raw. In consequence of the lack of food or the 
way in which it was consumed, suffering and disease ensued. 
Those who were fortunate enough to possess a garden plot with 
a few vines or fruits or vegetables were compelled to guard them 
by night and by day against the spoiler. It was considered an 
act of charity for those who had fruit trees, after themselves 
gathering the fruit, to permit those more wretched than they to 
strip the branches of their leaves and consume them. Paris 
suffered with the rest of France, for it was impossible to supply 
the citv with food from the Beauce and Picardy and Champagne. 
Grain was imported from Spain and even from the Barbary coast, 
the timely arrival of six vessels, on one occasion, saving the capital 
from the pinch of famine.' The "hard times," which lasted more 
than a year, naturally bore heaviest upon the poorer classes, whose 
wretched condition contrasted with the luxury and vanity of the 
wealthier classes, with whom extravagance reached an extreme.^ 

1 See Claude Haton, II, 710, 711, 717, 718, 722-25, 726, 729, 731. The 
government sent out inspectors to make an inventory of the grain still available. 
Much of it was confiscated for the use of the army at an established price, and a 
maximum price fixed for the sale of the remainder. 

2 Ibid., 715, 716 (see a discourse upon the extreme dearth in France and 
upon the means to remedy it, in Arch, cur., VI, 423). The dearness of all things, 
according to the writer, probably Bodin, is the result of the excessive luxTiry which 
prevails among the higher classes and the combination made by the merchants to 
raise prices. He proposes the establishment of public granaries and that the 
government price be made obligatory for all dealers. 



THE FOURTH CIVIL WAR 457 

During the winter there was a complete cessation of hostihties 
before La Rochelle. Not a cannon was discharged all through the 
months of December, January, and February.' In derision of 
the King's camp, some of the more daring of the Huguenot soldiery 
strutted about adorned with cards and dice to signify that the 
King's troops were better gamesters than soldiers.^ The truth 
is, Protestant France was not all of one mind to continue the 
resistance. There were two parties in the Huguenot capital, the 
irreconcilables, who wanted war to the knife and favored looking 
to England for support; and a more moderate faction led by that 
Bayard of the Protestants, the heroic La Noue, who, believing 
that the great enemy of France and of the Huguenots was Spain, ^ 
with proper guarantees stood ready to forget and forgive the 
massacre, so far as it was possible for human memory and 
feeling to do so, recognizing that that event was a catastrophe 
to Catholic as well as to Protestant France; that, however mon- 
strous it was as a crime, as a blunder its effects were even more 
calamitous. 

As for the crown, it was even more anxious than the moderate 
Huguenots to avoid a protracted siege and come to some form of 
settlement. 4 With this aim Charles IX, through the medium of the 
duke of Longueville, governor of Picardy, early in October had 
made overtures to La Noue, who was still in Flanders. After some 
hesitation La Noue came to Paris where he had a conference with 
the King and the queen mother. So trusted and so capable was 
he that Charles IX gave him practically discretionary powers to 
bring about a settlement, and in the middle of November La Noue 
went to La Rochelle. 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 800, February 28, 1573. 

2 Ihid., No. 1,000, May 31, No. 1,027, June 9, 1573. 

3 The Politiques hoped to persuade Charles IX to stop the war at home and exact 
redress from Spain for the massacre in Florida by attacking the Spanish West 
Indies. Even the duke of Anjou favored this. See Appendix XXX. 

4 La Popeliniere, XXI, 214 and 232 bis; C. S. P. For., No. 1,042, Dr. Dale to 
Lord Burghley, June 16, 1573: "The hearts of all men were being discouraged 
with the long siege" and the King's heart bled "to see the misery of his people that 
die for famine by the ways where he rode." 



458 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

For days the intrepid leader vainly endeavored to secure en- 
trance into the city.^ Finally, on November 26 he was reluctantly 
admitted. During the cold and weary weeks of December, 
January, and February, while besieged and besiegers were lying 
on their arms upon the walls or in the trenches. La Noue alter- 
nately entreated and expostulated, urging the necessity of peace 
in the face of vilification, the Huguenot minister I^a Place even 
calling him "perfide traistre, deserteur de son parti." "The word 
of the King," said Catherine de Medici, to the deputies of the 
Reformed on one occasion, "ought to be sufficient for you." 
"No," replied one of them, "not since St. Bartholomew."^ Even 
La. Noue's influence could not overcome the radical party in La 
Rochelle which imprisoned as many as advocated capitulation 
no matter what the terms might be. At last on March 12, 1573, 
the brave man gave up hope of persuading the zealot populace and 
returned to the King's camp. Angry at the failure of these 
pacific overtures, the government forces redoubled their attacks. 
On March 22 the royal artillery opened a terrible fire upon the 
city, more than 1,500 cannon-balls being thrown. On April 7 
there was a furious assault, even women fighting on the wall, 
and the attack was repeated on the loth, 13th, and 14th, on the 
last day there being five separate attempts to take the city by 
storm. 

Montgomery, who had been sent to England for assistance,^ 
appeared with about seventy ships, and was on the point of giving 
battle in the bay, when a fleet of forty vessels from the ports of 
Brittany and Normandy hove in sight. These ships, with what 
Anjou could muster, made too great a body for Montgomery to 

1 La Rochelle at first refused to let La Noue enter. On the whole matter 
see Hauser, La Noue, chap. ii. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 1,547, March 21, 1573; Raumer, II, 265; the marshals 
Biron and Strozzi, with Pinart, were commissioned for the purpose {Arch. hist, du 
Poitoii, XII, 233). The negotiations may be seen in detail in Loutzchiski, Doc. 
in edits, 62 ff. 

3 Vie de La Noue, 95 ; Letter of Charles IX to the duke of Anjou, February 
7, 1573, Coll. Lajariette, Paris, i860. No. 669; Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, No. 57. 
At the same time Charles IX wrote in person to Montgomery, trying to lure him 
from the enterprise he was engaged in. See Appendix XXXI. 




^^mmiu 






en M D Lxxii. 




From Histoire au siege de La Rochelle en 1573, traduite du Latin de Philippe Cauriana (La Rochelle, 

1856). 



THE FOURTH CIVIL WAR 459 

risk an engagement, and so he retired to Belle-Ile, which was 
made a Protestant naval base.^ 

Meanwhile, the Swiss in camp had toiled in the trenches and 
''swamp angel" guns were established in the marshes to batter 
the port of St. Nicholas. On June ii the supreme assault on La 
Rochelle was made and repulsed. The attacking force by an 
escalade gained possession of the rampart but found a mighty 
trench before them, so that they were constrained to beat their 
way along the rampart in the hopes of finding a place to cross it. 
Those in the camp, seeing their comrades gain the ramparts, cried, 
"ville gaignee!" But the Rochellois lured the enemy along 
the wall "and when they were entered set upon them both before 
and behind with such fury that they were all either slain or hurt, 
and the rest who were coming to succor the foremost were re- 
pulsed with great loss."^ 

After the failure of the great assault, because the soldiery 
without was so much discouraged by failure, angry for lack of 
pay,^ and weakened by losses and disease, "* the only recourse of the 
crown was to capitulate with the Rochellois with as much reser- 
vation as possible. Villeroy's report on the condition of things 
before La Rochelle was too convincing to be ignored. ^ In the first 
week of July, after two days' deliberation, Charles IX signed the 
terms, although they were not published at once.^ 

The general provisions were that those of La Rochelle should 
have life, goods, and liberty of conscience and that the town, to- 
gether with Montauban, Sancerre, and Nimes should also have "free 

1 C. S. p. Ven., Nos. 540, 541, April 6 and 20, 1573. 

2 Ibid., For., No. 1,050, June 22, 1573; Chroniques fontenaisiennes, 169. 

3 See the series of documents on this head in Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, Nos. 25, 

29, 30, 38> 4i-43> 46, 73> 77- 

4 When the army disbanded, it was a frequent sight in the villages to see the 
wounded or sick being transported in baggage wagons (Claude Haton, II, 737). 
The villages near La Rochelle where the camp had been established were burned 
upon the evacuation of the troops "to prevent the plague which began to be hot." 
— C. S. P. For., No. 1,107, Wilkes to Walsingham, July 31, 1573; cf. No. 1,052, 
June 25, to the same effect. 

s C. S. P. For., No. 1,072, Dr. Dale to the Queen, late in June, 1573. 
6 The articles were sent to the Catholic camp on July, 6. 



46o THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

exercise of the religion and find a garrison for themselves." The 
edict declared that the memory of all things which had happened 
since the 24th of August should be extinguished; that the Catholic 
religion was to be established throughout the country, except at 
the four cities named. Bailiffs and judges ordinary were to see 
to the decent interment of those who died in the Reformed religion. 
Those who gave security that they would change their religion 
should be admitted to the universities, schools, hospitals, without 
hindrance, and finally that any French Protestant might sell or 
alienate his goods and retire to any country he pleased, provided 
it were not to the territory of any princes where war obtained, a 
provision obviously intended to protect Spain in the Netherlands.^ 

But the fourth war of religion was not yet entirely over. While La 
Rochelle with 2,000 men daily labored to repair its battered walls, 
Sancerre was not to be tempted by the terms, and the south of 
France still held out. The heroic resistance of Sancerre, perched 
like an eagle's nest on a steep hill above the Loire, is one of the 
epic stories of the sixteenth century. For nearly eight months 
(January 3 to August 19, 1573) the city withstood every assault 
and only succumbed at last when reduced to direst famine. Horses, 
asses, dogs, cats, rats were all consumed. Soup made of boiled 
parchment became a luxury. The inhabitants ate "pain de 
paille haschee et d'ordorze y meslant du fumier de chevaux et 
tout ce qu'ils pensoient avoir quelque sue." Even the bodies of the 
dead were disinterred and consumed. Wlien human nature could 
endure no more, Sancerre threw itself upon the mercy of its con- 
queror. It was granted liberty of worship and the people spared 
from massacre and pillage for the price of forty thousand livres; 
but its mediaeval glory was shorn from it. The splendid clock- 
tower of the town was destroyed, its ramparts razed. ^ 

In spite of the pacification at La Rochelle and the fall of San- 

I Hist, du Languedoc, V, 543, note; C. S. P. For., No. 1,090, July 11, 1573. 
. 2 Lery, Histoire memorable de la ville de Sancerre, contenant les entreprises, 
buteries, assaux et autres efforts des assiegeans : les resistances, f aits magnanimes, 
la famine extreme et delivrance des assiegez, 1574; Discours de I'extreme famine 
etc. dont les assiegez de la ville de Sancerre ont ete affligez et ont use environ trois 
mois. Arch, cur., VIII, 21. 



THE FOURTH CIVIL WAR 461 

cerre, the Midi still resisted. In Languedoc and Dauphine the 
Huguenots were especially strong. ' Their harvests were garnered 
into walled towns; their army included 2,000 arquebusiers besides 
the Huguenot gentry and they were well prepared for further 
war.^ On the anniversary of the massacre (August 24, 1573) 
deputies of all the churches of the south convened at Montauban 
and took the preliminary steps in the formation of the great 
Huguenot confederation which in December assumed the direction 
of the war, the regulation of finances, civil administration, and 
religious protection.^ 

Languedoc was divided into two governments with Montauban 
and Nimes as centers under the authority of the viscounts of 
Paulin and St. Romain, each assisted and controlled by a council. 
The councils, in turn, in all important matters were required to 
consult the local assemblies of Protestants. All these assemblies 
were elective. The Protestant organization thus constituted an 
all but full-fledged state within a state, asserting its own power 
to lay taxes, to administer justice, to carry on war, and to make 
peace. It was estimated that 20,000 men in these regions were 
able to bear arfns. 

In consequence of the continuance of the war in the south the 
Swiss and the rest of the soldiery not yet licensed were sent from 
the camp before La Rochelle into Dauphine and Languedoc. But 
the government was heavily embarrassed financially and had been 
compelled to resort to forced loans in Paris and the old shift of 
mortgaging the revenue until the grant of the clergy was made in 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 1,101, July 23, No. 1,107, J^^y 3i> i573- I" Languedoc 
and Dauphine the Huguenots were strong, and possessed of many towns (see a 
letter of Louis of Nassau in Archives de la maison d' Orange-N assau, IV, 75 and 
the "Names of all the towns in the south of France of which the Huguenot party 
could be sure of, together with a list of the noblemen attached to the party" in 
Appendix XXXII). 

2 Vie de La None, 99; C. S. P. For., No. 965, May 16, No. 1,095, July 23, 
1573. A deputation of Huguenots of Languedoc came to Fontainebleau in Septem- 
ber, 1573 (cf. Letter of Schomberg to Louis of Nassau, September 29, 1573, Archives 
de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, IV, 211 and Appendix 117). 

3 Long, 115, 116. The instrument of government contained 89 articles. 



462 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

June.' Even then it did not urge war. Charles IX, jealous of 
the Guises and of the military reputation which his brother had 
acquired, was again manifesting his hatred of the restraint im- 
posed upon him, and desirous of recovering his independence. 

The tendency of France was to return to its earlier policy which 
had been interrupted by the massacre.^ Charles again inclined 
to sustain Holland in its rebellion against Spain, ^ at least under- 
handedly. To strike Spain was at the same time to strike at all 
the influences which he hated. Accordingly France made overtures 
anew to the prince of Orange, although it was not without repug- 
nance that Wilham of Orange brought himself to listen to them.^ 
But the voice of policy was stronger than sentiment. ^ For on 

1 C. S. p. For., Nos. 972, 986, March 20 and 30, 1573. The collection of these 
forced loans was expedited by the presence of Strozzi's men-at-arms and the Scotch 
Guard in the Louvre; and two bands of Swiss at St. Cloud. In this way, Charles 
IX was able to collect the money "without danger of commotion," and avoided 
that worst of expedients to the crown, the States-General (see particulars in Dr. 
Dale's letter to Burghley of January 11, 1573, ibid., No. 1,291). In June the 
assembly of the clergy agreed to furnish the queen mother 200,000 livres and within 
three years to redeem 1,800,000 livres' worth of the King's debts. The clergy made 
a great stroke by obtaining the creation of four receivers-general for the collection 
of these subsidies, the appointments to which they sold for between 600,000 and 
700,000 livres, thus saving themselves that amount in the final {ibid.. No. 1,027, 
June 9, 1573). But this relief came too late for the government to continue the 
prosecution of the war before La Rochelle. The capitulation with the Rochellois 
was too far advanced to be withdrawn. Moreover, the crown itself was anxious 
to close the war. 

2 Catherine de Medici to Schomberg, September 13, 1572, Arch, de la maison 
d' Orange-Nassau, IV, Appendix, No. 13; Weill, 86; Revue retrospective, V, 363. 

3 Neg. Tosc, III, 876. On July 7 the Tuscan ambassador wrote: "E, se 
questo regno si liberassi delle guerre civili, saria facil cosa la rompessi con 
Spagna; che questo, credo, sia il fine di tutti li trattamenti che fa Orange in questo 
regno. — Ibid., 883. 

4 Ibid., IV, 108, 109. 

s In the same month William of Orange dispatched to France the Seigneur 
de Lumbres, whose popularity with the King was so great that he even offered to 
take him into his service {Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, Introd., p. 21, 
and p. 165), and another agent with instructions to treat with the King and the queen 
mother {ibid., IV, 119-24, May, 1573). William stipulated for the preservation 
of the rights and privileges of whatever provinces and towns might be conquered 
by France, and that in case of open war by France upon Spain, in lieu of an 
annual subsidy of 400,000 florins, France should give assistance with men and 



THE FOURTH CIVIL WAR 463 

December 11, 1572, the famous siege of Haarlem had begun, it 
was Alva's purpose by the capture of this city to cut the com- 
munications between south Holland, where the prince of Orange 
was, and north Holland.^ 

From Germany the faithful and far-sighted Schomberg earnestly 
urged the project and so artfully did he fulfil his mission that the 
elector palatine, the landgrave, and the archbishop of Cologne 
all espoused it.^ "The repose of the kingdom, the security of 
the state, the ruin of the great enemy of France, direct and 
firm alliance with the princes of Germany, the subversion of 
all the designs of the house of Austria, and the culmination 
of your desires, is in the hands of your majesty," he wrote to 
Catherine on March 23.3 At last, after months of deliberation 
and delay, the threads of these tortuous negotiations were all 
drawn together at a secret interview of Catherine de Medici with 
Louis of Nassau at Blamont in Lorraine, in December, 1573.'* 

ships of war, besides the sum mentioned, to be paid within two years after the 
conclusion of peace {ibid., IV, 1 16-19; cf. the prince of Orange to Louis of Nassau 
upon the proposed French alliance, June 17, 1573). 

1 Ibid., IV, 33. On May 15, 1573, the prince of Orange concluded a treaty 
with England, permitting the English to enter the Scheldt in return for which the 
prince was to be permitted to purchase arms and ammunition and powder in 
England {Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, IV, 94). For William of 
Orange's connection with La Rochelle see ibid., 43 and 56. Compare letter of 
Charles IX to the duke of Anjou, March 18, 1573, complaining of the depredations 
of the " Wartegeux" on the Norman coast (Coll. Godefroy, CCLVIII, N0.49). 

2 Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, IV, 273, 274; Correspondance de 
Catherine de Medicis, IV, 270, 271, note. 

3 Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, IV, 270 and Appendix 43. Schom- 
berg and Louis of Nassau drew up the articles of the proposed treaty. In Appendix 
44 will be found the articles as originally drawn up, and on p. 116 the modified form 
of them as they were changed by the prince of Orange. The most important 
change is that whereby the prince altered the word "subjection" as applied to the 
Netherlands to "protectorate." The further idea is expressed that these negotia- 
tions would be fruitless unless the Edict of Pacification were established with full 
force in France {ibid., IV, 270, 271). On the whole subject of French negotiations 
in Germany after St. Bartholomew see Waddington, Rev. hist., XLII, 269 fi'. 

4 De Thou, VII, 37 (cf. Louis of Nassau's letter to his brother on the subject 
in Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, IV, 278 ff.). Charles IX was ill at the 
time and the C|ueen mother went alone to Blamont {ibid., IV, 276, 277; Mem du due 
de Bouillon). The Spanish ambassador in France was not unobservant of the 



464 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

But there was yet another reason why the crown of France 
was desirous of closing the conflict at home, which goes far to 
explain the government's willingness to compromise with La 
Rochelle. The throne of Poknd had become .vacant upon the 
death of Sigismund Augustus, the last of the Jagiello house, on 
July 7, 1572. The crown of Poland was an elective one, the suf- 
frage being in the hands of the diet, composed solely of the two 
privileged orders. In the factional strife that too often ensued, the 
deadlock was sometimes broken by the election of an outside prince. 
This vicious and unnational policy triumphed in 1573. The 
Emperor, the King of Spain, and France had each a candidate. 
But Poland had no mind to experience the fate of Bohemia and 
pass under the suzerainty of the Hapsburgs. Spain, too, in the 
person of her ambassador, was deprived of a. hearing and com- 
pelled to make overtures in writing. In this wise the way was 
cleared for French diplomacy. In the autumn of 1572, Charles 
IX had been sounded by the Poles as to the candidacy of the duke 
of Anjou and had intimated the conditions to be expected.^ On 
December 19, the secretary of the bishop of Valence, the French 
agent who had been hastily dispatched to Poland, arrived in Paris, 
and gave great hope for the election of the duke of Anjou, though 
the Polish diet had not met yet on account of the plague.^ 

When it convened on April 15, 1573, the dexterous feat was 
accomplished by the papal legate, Cardinal Commendone, who, 
for his spiritual master, was hostile to the Emperor for having 
lately made a three years' truce wdth the Turks and thus marred 
the glory of Lepanto, and opposed in principle to the widening 

favorable policy of Charles toward the Netherlands and so informed the duke of 
Alva {Archives de la niaison d' Orange-Nassau, IV, 132). The peace of La Rochelle 
was a hard blow to Spain (Languet, Epist. seer., I, 201; St. Goard to Charles IX, 
July 17, 1573 in Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, IV, 164-69). These 
negotiations of the prince of Orange and his brother with England and France, 
however, came too late to save Haarlem. On July 12 the unhappy city succumbed. 
On the 14th the Spaniards entered and began a regular massacre, in which nearly 
1,800 persons were either slain with the sword, hanged, or drowned {ibid., IV, 
173; cf. a letter of the prince of Orange to Louis of Nassau, giving details of the 
surrender on July 22, 1573, ihid., 175). 

I C. S. P. For., No. 686 (1572). = Ihid., No. 673, December 20, 1572. 



THE FOURTH CIVIL WAR 465 

of Spain's activities anywhere, in view of the supreme struggle 
of the faith in France and the Low Countries, where the cause 
of Rome was in sore need of Spanish support. The French 
envoys' then skilfully introduced the name of the duke of Anjou, 
lauding his Catholic virtues in the ears of a Catholic populace; 
promising that if elected Henry of Valois would spend all his 
revenues — how little these were the Poles could not know — in 
Poland for the benefit of the kingdom; they promised, too, that the 
prospective king would recover from the Muscovite all the territories 
whereof the kingdom of Poland had been despoiled in times past, 
as well as Wallachia from the Turks. ^ The arguments told, and 
on May 19, 1573, the duke of Anjou was elected king of Poland. 
On August 8, 1573, the official deputation of Polish nobles 
sent to France to notify the duke of xA.njou of his election reached 
Metz, and soon afterward (June 24, St. John's Day) arrived at 
Paris. They were the advance guard of almost two thousand 
Polish nobles and gentry who visited the kingdom during this 
summer. They were all magnificently lodged and entertained 
in the city at the expense of the crown, or rather at the expense 
of the people, for a new tax was imposed for purposes of en- 
tertainment. The appearance of the Poles struck the French 
with amazement. They were all tall, handsome men, "speaking 
Latin down to the very hostlers," but marvelously given to drink 
and great gourmands. The wine-shops of the capital were almost 
drunk dry. Two Poles, the saying went, drank more wine and 
consumed more meat than six Frenchmen. ^ 

1 These were Montluc, bishop of Valence, and M. de Rambouillet. The 
former's speeches (April 10 and 22), are printed in Mem. de I'estat de France, II, 
147, 224, in a French translation. The original discourses were in Latin. In 
Arch, cur., IX, 137, is a letter of one of Rambouillet's suite. 

2 See the account of the election in C. S. P. For., No. 1,082, June 5, 1573; 
cf. Languet, Epist. seer., I, 189; Castelnau, ed. Le Laboureur, III, 298. The 
news of the duke of Anjou's success was naturally received with greater pleasure 
in Paris than anywhere else in Europe. Bonfires were lighted and the Te Deum 
sung in honor of his election (C 5. P. For., No. 1,027, June 9, 1573). The clergy, 
in the assembly of the clergy which took place soon after the news arrived, voted 
the duke a subsidy of 300,000 crowns {ihid., No. 992). 

3 Claude Haton, II, 734; Neg. Tosc, III, 886, 887. 



466 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The honor of the crown of Poland salved the wounded pride 
of Anjou, still before La Rochelle. But the army murmured so 
much that a royal mandate was issued making it a misdemeanor to 
argue or to discuss the Polish election in the streets of Paris, or 
to discountenance the election of the duke of Anjou to the throne 
of Poland in written work or speech.^ Without victory, without 
pay, without even enough to eat, the soldiers grumbled to the point 
of mutiny and averred that the government was bribed, and took 
the Huguenot money in order to provide funds for the King's trip 
to Poland,^ Henry dared not openly leave the camp for fear of 
their rebellion and was compelled to make a feint of going boating 
in the bay and then effect an escape by sea to Nantes.^ 

Distance lent enchantment to the view. Poland was in a 
wretched condition through the dissensions of the nobility. The 
Emperor w^as angry and talked of stopping the duke en route.* 
Lithuania seceded and entered into an alliance with the duke of 
Prussia, the king of Sweden, and Russia, to overthrow the Polish 
government. 5 The Hanseatic cities, too, like Dantzig, Riga, 
and Revel, were very dissatisfied, for it was open knowledge that 
Poland aspired to the control of their commerce.^ The Poles 

I Nig. Tosc, III, 886, 887. ^ Claude Haton, II, p. 735. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 1,100, July 23, 1573. 

4 The existence of a plot to kidnap the duke of Anjou in Germany in order 
to force France to return the Three Bishoprics was suspected by Schomberg 
{Archives de la maison (T Orange-Nassau, IV, Appendix, Nos. 112, 113). The 
duke was also afraid to go to Poland by way of Germany, fearing to get into diffi- 
culties on account of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, which still vividh^ angered 
the Protestant princes {ibid., IV, Introd., p. xxvi, and pp. 15, 19, 26, 32). His 
first thought was to go by way of Venice and Ragusa, through Servia, Bulgaria, 
and Moldavia (Languet, Episi. seer., I, 197; Archives de la maison d'Orange- 
Nassau, IV, 168, note). The advantage of the ancient alliance between France 
and Venice at this time would have been great. There was also some thought of 
his going entirely by sea, and the good offices of England were invoked to protect 
his journey (Castelnau, ed. Le Laboureur, III, 345). The young prince of Conde 
had been invited to go along, but excused himself on the ground that he was afraid 
of being arrested for his father's debts, "being a marvellously great sum." — C. S. 
P. For., No. 1,245, December 12, 1573. 

s Ibid., No. 1,097, July i^' ^573' from Frankfurt. 

6 Ibid., No. 1,177, September 20, 1573; Archives de la maison d' Orange-N assau> 
IV, 295. 



THE FOURTH CIVIL WAR 467 

themselves soon discovered that their new king was a goose 
without a golden egg. For the French lawyers found an inter- 
pretation of the promise that the French would discharge the 
debts of the realm to the effect that the promise meant only those 
arising since the death of the late king. The Polish agents in 
Paris made wry faces at the finding, but so the agreement was 
registered by the Parlement of Paris on September 17, 1573.^ 
In the same month the duke of Anjou set out for his new king- 
dom, going via Nancy, Heidelberg, and Frankfurt to Cracow. 
Metz he avoided because the Emperor, still sullen and still smart- 
ing from the loss of the city twenty-one years before (1552), had 
commanded the imperial commissioners appointed to conduct 
him, to receive him in Metz as though it were a free city of the 
empire, which the French naturally refused to permit. 

Again the foolish affection of Catherine de Medici for one of 
her children,^ again her political fatuity, threw France far off 
from the course she should have followed. As before the massa- 
cre, so now that course was the path to Italy.^ Instead of narrow- 
ing the field of her ambition for her children and concentrating 
her power, not content with Poland for the duke of Anjou, she 
even dreamed of the Hapsburg crown for Charles IX, ■* and that 
of England for Alenjon. Schomberg's missions in 1572-73 to 
Germany^ were not merely to dispose the German princes in 
favor of France's projected enterprise in the Netherlands, but also 
to persuade them, especially the electors of Cologne and the 
Palatinate, in favor of the French King's imperial ambition. 
France's policy in Poland*^ and her policy in Germany were two 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 1,168, September 18, 1573. 

2 For Catherine's intense interest in the Polish question, see Vol. IV of her 
Correspondance, passim, and Arch, de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, IV, 267. 

3 Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, V, 299-306, 309-18, 322-24 — a series of 
remarkable political judgments. 

4 Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, IV, 31; Appendix, No. 69 and p. 96. 

s Ibid., IV, Appendix, Letters 1-8 refer to Schomberg's mission to Germany 
in the spring and summer of 1572. 

6 The history of Henry of Anjou's career in Poland has been written at length 
by the marquis de Noailles, Henri de Valois et la Pologne, Paris, 1867 (see also 



468 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

parts of one grand design and in a large sense had to stand or fall 
together. Peace with the Huguenots was an essential element 
in the forwarding of this project, especially with the Protestant 
German princes, as Schomberg pointed out.^ 

But there were two great obstacles in the way of advance — 
German resentment because of the massacre of St. Bartholomew^ 
and the counter-diplomacy of Spain.^ The Guisard-Spanish 
party at home naturally exerted itself to thwart the prosecution 
of these designs. ^ Morvilliers warned Charles IX that their 
continuance would involve France in a war with Spain. ^ 

L'Epinois, "La Pologne en 1572," R. Q. H., IV, 1868, p. 266; Bain, "The 
Polish Interregnum," English Hist. Review, IV, 645). In Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, 
Nos. 54, 62, 64, 66, 70, 72, is a series of letters dealing with French interest in 
Poland at this time. 

1 Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, IV, Appendix, Nos. 69 and 71. 

2 Ibid., IV, Appendix, No. 17, Schomberg to Catherine de Medici, October 
9, 1572. The landgrave bluntly said that twice before such overtures had been 
made to German princes — in 1567 and 1571 — and that civil war and the massacre 
had followed (ibid.. No. 72). 

3 St. Goard to Charles IX, July 9, 1573, ibid., IV, Appendix, No. 66; Schomberg 
to the duke of Anjou, February 10, 1573; ibid., Appendix, No. 34. The intense 
Catholic prejudices of the duke of Anjou, now king of Poland, were a serious bar 
to the progress of Schomberg's negotiations in Germany. He warned the duke 
not to give the impression of Spanish leanings (Schomberg to the duke of Anjou, 
October 9, 1572, ibid., IV, Appendix, No. 18), and seems almost to have persuaded 
him to abandon his intense Catholic-Spanish predilection (ibid., pp. 15, 268). The 
duke of Anjou is even said to have given Schomberg 100,000 francs. The letter 
is said to have been burned at the time of the Coconnas conspiracy in order to shield 
the duke of Alva's son (ibid., IV, 384). 

4 Charles IX to St. Goard, May 10, 1573, regarding a dispatch of the Spanish 
ambassador to Philip II telling of the negotiations of the King with Louis of Nassau 
(ibid., IV, Appendix, No. 55). 

s Ibid., IV, Appendix, No. 51. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE LAST DAYS OF CHARLES IX. THE CONSPIRACY OF THE 

POLITIQUES 

The war in the south, during the months of these negotiations, 
had gone on in its own course almost unhindered by the govern- 
ment. Many of the men of service had gone with Anjou into 
Poland and many others, especially the Swiss, were licensed. 
In consequence the Huguenots made themselves masters of the 
Rhone, even seizing Avignon, to the great anger of the Pope, who 
refused to receive Paul de Foix as French ambassador to Rome 
on the double ground that he was of the Huguenot persuasion and 
because the French King would not give safe-conduct to troops 
from Italy to go to Avignon for the purpose of recovering it.^ 
After the departure of his brother for Poland, Charles IX weakly 
took up the Protestant issue again, and he and his mother spent 
three days at Chantilly with Montmorency in consideration of the 
course to follow.^ Deputations from various provinces came to the 
King to petition immediate reduction of the taxes on account of the 
exhausted state of the country, but there was a unanimous wish 
against calling another session of the estates on account of the 
expense. 3 As an earnest of the King's good intentions, the prince 6f 
Conde was made governor of Picardy, an office made vacant by the 
timely decease of the duke of Longueville, the prince, to the 
chagrin of the duke of Nevers who was an aspirant for the post, 
having recovered from the smallpox, with which the duke of 
Alen^on also fell ill.^ The King had planned to convene deputies 
of the Huguenots of Languedoc and Dauphine at least at Com- 
piegne, but fell ill of smallpox ^ and the project came to an 

1 C. S. p. For., Nos. 1,202, 1,286, November 11, 1573, January 2, 1574. 

2 Neg. Tosc, III, 894, December 23, 1573. 

3 Ibid., 891-93, November 5, 1573. 

4C. S. P. For., Nos. 1,132, 1,138, August 18-22, 1573. 

s The attack v^^as aggravated by a heavy cold taken vi^hile hunting so that 
Charles IX was compelled for a season to quarter himself in a small inn at 

469 



47° THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

end.' To add to embarrassments Paris and Rouen, where the popu- 
lace were of the opposing religions, entered into war for the restraint 
of foodstuffs, Paris stopping all wine passing down the Seine and 
Rouen in turn preventing corn from passing up the river to Paris. ^ 
The economic condition of the country gave the government great 
concern. Hard times and high prices still prevailed and the 
measures of the government only irritated things the more, though 
some of them were w^isely meant. For example, in February, 
1574, an edict of the King forbade the circulation of all foreign 
silver coin, as well as that which was mutilated or debased. When 
the merchants of Troyes learned of this condemnation of all foreign 
or cut coin, they sent a deputation to remonstrate with the King, 
saying that their town and the county of Champagne as well as 
all Lorraine and Burgundy abounded with this money and no 
other; and it was not possible to exclude these coins from the 
country without entailing ruin, if the edict were enforced. They 
further urged that the edict would act as a serious bar to traffic 
across the frontier. But the King refused to rescind the ordinance. 
In consequence, those famihar with money palmed off the for- 
bidden currency upon the simpler folk, who found to their dismay 
that they had been cheated, when the King's officers refused to 
accept these coins in payment of taxes. Nevertheless, in the 
long run, the action raised the standard of coin in France. ^ Less 
wise action was the new sale of offices — those of the procureurs 
du roi — and it was even suggested that the office of advocate be 
made a salable one, but fortunately for the administration of 
justice, this was not done.'' 

Vitry. He was not scarred by the pox but he lost flesh alarmingly by reason of the 
illness and never recovered his health, and passed into quick consumption (cf. 
C. S. P. For, No. 1,229, November 18, 1573, Dr. Dale to Burghley). 

1 Neg. Tosc, III, 891; R. Q. H., XXXIV, 485. 

2 C. 5.- P. For., No. 1,235, November, 1573. 

3 The ecu which formerly had circulated as 57 sous tournois went up to 58; 
Spanish pistols, which were at 55 rose to 56; testons de France valued at 12 sous 
by the edict rose to 12 sous 6 d. tournois. Bad coin was driven out of the realm. 
Claude Haton, II, 749, 750. 

4 Ibid., ys^, 753- 



THE CONSPIRACY OF THE POLITIQUES 47 ^ 

Popular suspicion was also attached to an ordinance com- 
manding the governors of the provinces, through the bailiffs and 
senechals, to take a census in their localities, giving the name, 
surname, and employment of all men between the ages of twenty- 
one and sixty. It was beyond the imagination of the people to 
know the reason of this action, or to divine what the King meant 
to do. Some thought that the crown was going to establish a 
local constabulary for the arrest of the numerous robbers and 
vagabonds, who, under the guise of war, looted and pillaged the 
country, and that men would be chosen in each parish like the 
francs-archers of the days of Louis XII and Francis I. Others 
thought that the King merely wanted to raise a new army to send 
into Languedoc where the Huguenots and the Poiltiques were 
now making common cause together. Others still thought that 
the device was one for taxing purposes.^ 

Worst of all, however, was an event that happened late in 
December, 1573, which threatened to make the war general again. 
This event was the discovery of a plot to overthrow the Protestants in 
La Rochelle. The King seems to have been innocent of the project, 
and repudiated the government's part in it. The author of the 
plot was La Haye, the president of Poitiers, who ingratiated him- 
self with the people of the town and managed to secure some of 
his accomplices positions in the guard. The gate of the city was 
to be treacherously opened to a strong force secretly brought up 
under cover of darkness on the night of December 15. But on 
the day before, one of the company betrayed the plan to the author- 
ities of the city."" Tremendous indignation prevailed in Huguenot 
circles as a result of this disclosure. Enghsh merchants in Rouen, 
Dieppe, and the Norman ports for a time apprehended local 
massacres, for Montgomery was known to be in England. ^ In 
the provinces, from day to day, news came of the doings of the 

1 Claude Haton, II, 760 (1574). 

2 See details in C. S. P. Ven., No. 567, December 30, 1573. The queen 
mother was accused of planning to take LaRochelle by surprise {Archives de la maison 
d^ Orange-Nassau, IV, 309-11; Neg. Tosc, III, 896). 

3 C. S. P. Ven., Nos. 568, 569, January 22, February i, 1574- 



472 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Huguenots. La Noue was in Lusignan; there were Huguenot 
movements in Poitou, Limousin, and Guyenne;'' again it was word 
from Sedan, the seat of the duke of Bouillon, that there was a 
suspicious rendezvous of Huguenots there; another time that 
there were 500 Protestant horse and 1,200 footmen assembled 
at St. L6.^ The government was under apprehension lest sud- 
denly, either at home some danger might assail France, or that 
abroad, by the actions of Germany and England, material assis- 
tance might be given to the Huguenots to carry their designs into 
effect, for the waters of the Channel and the Bay of Biscay 
swarmed with privateers.^ On February 25 the Reformed party 
issued a famous declaration "printed at Rochelle in diverse 
languages that the truth of our cause and purpose may be known 
to all Christians." Finally, news of real material importance 
came that Montgomery, whom Guitery had joined, had landed near 
Coutances and marched to Carentan, which surrendered within 
two days. Since then Montgomery had taken various forts and 
castles, among them Argentan, and ten pieces of artillery.'* Charles 
IX immediately commissioned the sieur de Torcy, lieutenant- 
general in the government of the Ile-de-France and the viscount 
of Turenne to treat with him, making promise of favor and pro- 
tection if he would lay down his arms. But Montgomery replied 
that the memory of St. Bartholomew was too fresh for him to do so; 
and for that matter he would have to refer the King's terms to 
the body of the Reformed, of which he was only a member. ^ 

1 For details of this war see Chronique des guerres en Poitou, Aunis, Xain- 
tonge et Angoumois de 1574 a 1576. ed. by Fontenelle de Vaudore, Paris, 1841. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 570, February 6, No. 572, February 28; ibid., Eng., No. 
1,336, March 8, No. 1,338, March 8, No. 1,357, March 23, No. 1,342, March 15 
(1574)- 

3 On March 9, 1573, Sir Thomas Smith wrote to Walsingham: "Pirates of 
all nations infest our seas and under the flag of the prince of Orange or the count 
of Montgomery, pillage the English and foreigners impartially." (Cf. Walsing- 
ham, 392. C. S. P. Ven., No. 575, March 24, 1574.) 

4 Montgomery to Burghley, from Carentan, March 23, 1574 (C. S. P. For., 
1351; cf. C. S. P. Ven., No. 576, March 26; Delisle, Les deux sieges de Valognes en 
102 et 1574, St. L6, 1890). 

s C. S. P. For., No. 1,352. Commission from the King to the sieur de Torcy, 
etc., dated Bois de Vincennes, March 11, 1574. Montgomery's reply is subjoined, 



THE CONSPIRACY OF THE POLITIQUES 473 

The Huguenots possessed a hierarchy of religious assembHes 
which served to unite their forces, through consistories, colloquies, 
and provincial synods, into a national body. Yet there was not an 
absolute uniformity in this organization. In the north of France 
each town maintained its own particular administration, separate 
and distinct. La Rochelle is a type of this kind and was fiercely 
jealous of its "franchises and liberties" after the manner of the 
German cities.^ In the south, however, these local governments 
fused to form the great association, which rendered possible the 
creation of a genuine Huguenot political state. This develop- 
ment was materially aided by the Politiques. For one of the 
results of the massacre of St. Bartholomew was the crystalliza- 
tion of the liberal Catholic element represented by the marshal 
Montmorency and his brother, Damville, into a real political 
party. It was composed of a group of young nobles, ambitious 
and ill satisfied, with whom politics was of more importance 
than religion, and who were hostile to the queen mother and 
to the Guises. Among them were the duke of Alenfon, who 
perhaps dreamed of succeeding his brother, when Henry of Anjou 
was far away in Poland, for Charles IX's days were evidently num- 
bered; the young princes of Navarre and Conde, who had been 
driven to espouse Catholicism by terror, the viscount of Turenne 
and the whole house of Montmorency. Even in the camp before 
La Rochelle this faction of the Politiques laid its plots, endeavoring 
to put the fleet under command of the duke of Alenfon, and 
probably upon the advice of the king of Navarre opened inter- 
course with La Noue.^ La Noue was persuaded that much 

dated March 22; ibid., Ven., No. 577, April 2, 1574. Montgomery must have been 
in error as to the date of his arrival at Coutances, which he puts on March 11. It 
must have been eariier. Torcy's commission bears this date. On May 29 the 
chief of the Huguenots, or rather, Montgomery, wrote to Lord Burghley from 
Carentan, justifying the taking up arms, and stating what need there is of the 
favor and protection of the Queen {ibid., For., No. 1,429, May 24, 1574). 

1 Weill, 128, 129. 

2 Mem. du due de Bouillon, 89. The scheme was to deprive the duke of 
Anjou of the command before La Rochelle and put the duke of Alenf on and Henry 
of Navarre in command both by land and by sea. It failed, though Charles IX 
seems to have been willing, because Anjou flatly refused to resign (see letter in 
Appendix XXXIII). 



474 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

might be gained by the fusion of the Huguenots and the PoHtiques. 
The significance of this development must not pass unnoticed. 
The whole character of the war was ultimately changed by it. 
La Noue first, and later Damville, became the genius of this alli- 
ance. He negotiated with Damville, with Alenfon, with Henry of 
Navarre. He sent Du Plessis-Mornay to England. But his 
greatest feat of diplomacy was the persuasion of the people of 
La Rochelle to adopt the new course. It required all the elo- 
quence, all the charm, and all the strategy of a born leader of men 
to convince the hot-headed and impetuous Rochellois, but he 
finally succeeded, and the alliance was at last concluded between 
the Huguenots of religion and the Huguenots of state, the con- 
necting link being the new party of the Politiques.^ 

The Protestants and the Politiques speedily converted theo- 
ries into practice in the south of France, where their confedera- 
tion spread over all Languedoc and much of Guyenne. Two 
towns in each province were appointed as "Confederate towns." 
Special parlements pronounced upon all law cases which arose 
between litigants of either group. Liberty of worship was recog- 
nized as sacred right and this de facto government even undertook 
the trial and condemnation of the authors of the massacre of 

1572- 

We get clear intimations of these new political ideas in the 
literature of the time. 

In the last days of Charles IX a political treatise appeared 
entitled Du droit des magistrats sur les sujets, purporting to 
have been published in Magdeburg, which advanced the thesis 
that the kingship, although established by God, was a popular 
institution, and that, if the king were unfaithful to his office, 
he could be set aside. ^ The Franco-GalUa of Hotman proclaimed 
the sovereignty of the people and the dependency of the crown 
upon its will. The same idea dominates the Junius Brutus of 

I Forneron, Histoire des dues de Guise, II, 276. On the whole question see 
De Crue, Le parti des Politiques au lendemain de la St. Barthelemy, Paris, 1892; 
Weill, 133 ff. 

= Weill, 88, 89. The actual author was Beza. 



THE CONSPIRACY OF THE POLITIQUES 475 

Hubert Languet. Popular sanction, he says, alone makes the 
king; election is an inalienable right of the people to whom the 
king is responsible. A pamphlet inspired by the Montmorencys 
and called La France-Turquie compared Charles IX to the Sultan 
and accused him of endeavoring to reduce his subjects to eastern 
servility. 

An incident that occurred at this time shows how far the idea 
of limited monarchy obtained among the Huguenots. In the 
course of one of the negotiations the prince of Conde was asked to 
sign a paper for his party. His reply was that he and the king of 
Navarre "had no other authority in that party than that which 
they had received with the articles of their election," which did 
not attribute a monarchical power to them, the party being com- 
posed of a great number of the nobility and the third estate, who 
had given power to them.' 

Yet there was not complete homogeneity in the new order of 
things. The Politiques, except high nobles, and the rank and 
file of the Huguenots represented liberal democratic ideas. But 
the nobles could not forget their ancient lineage. The assemblees 
de generalite, created in 1573, included the chief members of the 
nobility, and although the third estate occupied an important 
place in them, the generals were all nobles.^ The nobility were 
not slow to resume their ancient superiority owing to the influence 
of the king of Navarre, who was not as pliable as the prince of 
Conde, particularly after the Huguenot alliance with the Poli- 
tiques. ^ 

An enormous amount of provincial spirit had been aroused 
during the course of the wars. One of the speakers in the Reveille- 
matin speaks of the half-independence of Dauphine, and points 
out the strong tendency to re-establish the ancient provincial 
organization. This theory of the Huguenots was in harmony 
with their constant assertion that they were restorers of the past, 
not revolutionists. Feudal traditions were too strong in France 
to be displaced by this new change. While the bourgeoisie 

1 Weill, 132; citing La Huguerye, II, 84. 

2 Weill, 95-97. 3 Ibid., 133. 



476 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

formed town groups, the Protestant and Politique nobles appealed 
to the provincial spirit. By a species of political atavism the 
regime of the Middle Ages began again to prevail.^ Every 
captain considered himself a petty sovereign. When the King 
ordered Montbrun to respect the majesty of the law, the haughty 
rejoinder was that arms made men equal in the game of politics. 
"In time of war when one carries a weapon in his hand and 
sits in the saddle, the whole world is comrade." 

The government accordingly made renewed endeavors to 
carry on the war. The provost of Paris was authorized on March 
30 to make proclamation that all vassals and others in Paris 
belonging to the ban and arriere-ban, should assemble, fully 
equipped on April 15; all gendarmes were ordered to repair to the 
governors and lieutenant-governors of their several provinces, by 
April 20.^ Montpensier was sent into Anjou with instructions 
to do nothing against La Noue, but to keep the passages of the 
Loire and prevent him from joining with Montgomery. The 
hope was yet to arrange terms with the Huguenots and for that 
reason Strozzi, for whom La Noue had been exchanged after 
Moncontour, and Pinart were sent to La Noue, bearing credentials 
from Henry of Navarre, and Villeroy dispatched to Languedoc. 
Simultaneously emissaries were also sent to Sedan, for fear lest 
the prince of Conde and the duke of Bouillon might conspire 
with Louis of Nassau. East, west, south, the clouds of war hung 
over France.^ In the court intrigue and accusation were rife all 
this time. In February the duke of Guise feigned, or believed, 
that he discovered a plot to assassinate him, of which Montmorency 
was the author.^ 

I See Corviere, L' organisation politique du parti protest ant tenu a Millau 



2 C. S. P. For., Nos. 1,349, 1,356, March 17 and 30, 1574. There were ten 
ensigns in every regiment, each of 300 men. 

3 Ihid., No. 1,388, April, 1574. The prince was reputed to have about 6,000 
or 7,000 reiters, "French, German, or Swiss." — Ibid., No. 1,433, Wilkes to Wal- 
singham, May 31, 1574- 

4 See details in ibid.. No. 1,322, February 16 1574. 



THE CONSPIRACY OF THE POLITIQUES 477 

The absence of Henry of Anjou at this critical stage filled 
Catherine with alarm, and strenuous efforts were made to bring 
about a settlement. A secret agent of the queen mother named 
Pierre Brisson at this time tried to bribe La Noue by the offer of 
10,000 ecus de rente to retire to England. It must have been a 
great temptation, for already the intrepid leader was ruined by the 
war; but his nature was too noble to accept the terms. Charles 
IX for a season shook himself out of the apathy of mortal illness, 
while the Huguenots and the Politiques bent every endeavor to per- 
fect their plans during the absence of the heir to the throne in 
Poland. The scheme was to declare Henry of Anjou deprived of 
his rights to the crown and to recognize the duke of Alenf on as heir- 
presumptive with the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. 
Elizabeth of England' and William of Orange were counted upon 
for influence and assistance. With this purpose a conspiracy 
was set on foot much like that attempted at Meaux in 1567. The 
duke of Alenfon and the king of Navarre were to make their 
escape from court and effect a union with Guitery, chief of the 
confederates in Normandy. They were then suddenly to seize St. 
Germain and carry off the King and queen mother. The plot 
was that the king of Navarre, the duke of Alenjon, and some of 
their gentlemen should go forth from the court on the morning 

I Hume supposes {Courtships of Queen Elizabeth, 177) that Elizabeth, 
knowing that this plot was in progress, again withdrew her permission for an inter- 
view with the duke of Alenjon. She feared the result if the interview were unsuc- 
cessful; she would not allow a public visit under any circumstances, and did not 
wish a private. The recent expedition against La Rochelle had also angered her 
subjects, so that now the negotiations were once more apparently at a standstill. 
But we must not forget her private scheme. Nothing could be more in line with 
Elizabeth's policy than to promote a family quarrel in the French royal house. 
That she was well informed of the plot can scarcely be doubted, for March 16, 
1574, we find a safe-conduct for Alenjon in the foreign papers; and the permission 
given for him to come to the Queen as soon as he has notified her of his arrival in 
England. April i, moreover, Dale wrote to Walsingham, "The Duke has hope 
in the Queen and feareth much" — there is nothing more to explain the reference. 
Hume does not explicitly state Elizabeth's connivance and the editor of Hall, Vol. 
II, does not mention the plot at all (p. xxi); neither does Burlingham in his resume. 
It can scarcely be doubted, however, that Elizabeth was actively interested or, at 
least, informed of its progress. 



478 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of this day as if to hunt, and ride toward Mantes, which was a 
town in the appanage of the duke, and garrisoned by a com- 
pany of the marshal Montmorency under the command of a 
brother of Du Plessis-Mornay. The gate was to be opened upon 
their appearance.^ March i, 1574, was the day set for the enter- 
prise, but there was a misunderstanding between the leaders, 
and unfortunately, as in 1560, there were too many informed of it. 
Catherine had vague information, and was on her guard. But 
final failure was due to a false move of Guitery, who arrived upon 
the scene a day ahead of the appointed time, and with insuffi- 
cient forces. 

Success depended upon Guitery' s arriving at the hour of six 
on the morning of March i with 300 gentlemen and some foot- 
men, but on February 27 the wild rumor was spread that there 
were some 700 or 800 horsemen of the religion seen within three 
leagues of St. Germain. Everybody made ready for flight ''re- 
moving of stuff as if they had fled before an enemy." In the 
morning the march was made in battle array to Paris, Charles 
being so weak that he could scarcely ride his mule.^ 

At Paris, fearful of going to the Louvre, the King lodged in the 
house of De Retz in the Faubourg St. Honore and then went to 
Bois de Vincennes. Failing in his purpose Guitery sought to 
cross the Seine at Mantes, probably with the intention of joining 
La Noue who, having taken Lusignan and other towns in Poitou, 
as unsuccessfully was endeavoring to cross the Loire to join 
Guitery. 3 When the first alarm was over, the King and queen 
mother tried to make light of the episode. But it was a symptom 
the lesson of which could not be mistaken. It is plain that Charles 
IX and his mother feared greatly what Alenjon might be plan- 
ning, but he affirmed vigorously that he was only trying to escape 
from court."* When questioned, he disclaimed any treasonable intent 

1 Mem. de madame Mornay, 74, 75. 

2 De Thou, Book LVII; Arch, cur., VII, 105. 

3 C. S. P. Ven., No. 572, February 28, and ibid., For., Nos. 1,331, 1,336, 
1,350, March 2, 8, 22, 1573. 

4 The duke of Alenfon and the king of Navarre issued a declaration denying 
all knowledge of Guitery's enterprise against the King at St. Germain. Tract 



THE CONSPIRACY OF THE POLITIQUES 479 

or purpose to disturb the kingdom, but admitted his hatred for the 
court party and his sympathy for the PoHtiques. In a long 
harangue the duke accused the King of undue favoritism of his 
brother, the duke of Anjou. The ground of his reproaches seems to 
have been pique because of the fact that, while in camp before La 
Rochelle, affairs of importance were never discussed in his presence. 

After the departure of the king of Poland, when he hoped to have more 
insight into public affairs, he had not been admitted, nor was he able to obtain 
the dignity and functions which had belonged to his brother. And these facts had 
lowered his reputation in the court to such an extent that the Guises not only- 
desired to quarrel with him but were continually laboring to effect that result.' 

Further, Alenfon complained 

that the king and his mother threw difficulties in the way of his intentions in 
Flanders; and made use of such well-reasoned arguments that it was clear the 
case that he put forward had been prepared by persons possessing greater 
experience and knowledge than his capacity could pretend to have. But he 
did not reveal any names. He alleged that he would have to remain a poor 
prince unless by force of arms he could acquire a position whereby he might 
obtain a sufficient reputation to accomplish a marriage with the queen of 
England; that in France the authorities and powers enjoyed by his brother, 
the King of Poland, were not given him, and that what little power he had was 
only in name, while, on the other hand, the prince of Orange has sought his 
aid by very large offers and many great promises had also been made to him 
from Germany and England, and that in the kingdom of France many persons 
had pledged their word to follow his fortunes everywhere.^ 

The Guisard faction and Biragues, the chancellor, in order 
to strike Montmorency, who with Damville was the leader of the 
Politiques, urged a drastic course. At the meeting of the King's 
council, the chancellor said to the King: 

You should take into account the continual fear for your own person, and 
the imminent ruin which threatens the whole kingdom given you by God, the 
governor; and these considerations without doubt should move your majesty 
to follow the example of King Louis XI, your ancestor, who was so renowned 
in history, and to cause the world to know that while your Majesty is full of 
clemency, so you can also punish when the occasion demands. ^ 

printed at Paris by Frederic Morel, 1574, p. 8; cf. Lettres de Henri IV, I, 60; Mem. 
de la Hiiguerye, I, 182, note 2. 

1 C. S. P. Ven., No. 573, March 10, 1574. 

2 Ibid., No. 574, March 17, 1574. 3 Ibid. 



48o THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

In view of the high estate of those involved, Catherine de 
Medici, however, refused to follow out this resolute policy. But 
both princes and Montmorency were kept under surveillance 
though nominally allowed their liberty. This Scotch verdict of 
"not proven" was a great disappointment to the Guises who 
probably are responsible for the "conspiracy" trumped up two 
weeks later. It was alleged that a plot had been "discovered" 
against the King and the queen mother which was to have been 
carried into effect on Easter Day. On April 8, Alenfon, Henry 
of Navarre, and the marshal Montmorency, were together in the 
castle of Bois de Vincennes when suddenly the gates were shut 
and double guards set, for there was a rumor of the appearance 
of strange horsemen in the vicinity. At the same time the gates 
of Paris were closed and no one was permitted to pass out with 
any horse or weapon. La Mole, one of the gentlemen attached 
to Alenf on, was suddenly arrested, and with him another gentle- 
man of Alenfon's entourage, the count Coconnas. Both were 
imprisoned in the Conciergerie, and refused converse with the 
duke. The prince of Navarre, Alenjon, and Montmorency, how- 
ever, still were suffered to go abroad but "with such company 
as might be masters."^ Things now rapidly passed from farce 
to tragedy. Alengon and Navarre would confess nothing,^ the 
latter showing " a very bold face without any fear of consequences." 
The examination was with the purpose of acquiring colorable 
information from the inquisition of La Mole and Coconnas 

' C. S. p. For., Nos. 1,377, 1:37^) April 10-12, 1574; ibid., Ven., Nos. 580, 
581, April 9-10. 

- But it is not to be doubted that back of the affair was a secret movement of 
the liberal Huguenots and the Politiques to put Alengon upon the throne in event 
of the death of Charles IX and so foil the succession of the bigoted Henry of Anjou. 
Vie de Mornay, 23: Jalluard a Taffin, ministre du St. Evangile, May 8, 1574: 
" L'emprisonnement du due d'Alenfon, roy de Navarre, mareschal de Montmor- 
enci, et autres, ont apporte non seulement un grand estonnement, mais aussi rompu 
des grands desseins." — Archives de la maison d' Orange- Nassau, V, 2; cf. IV, 375. 
Moderate men perceived the value of Alenjon as a couterpoise to Henry of 
Poland (cf. C. S. P. For., No. 1,431, May 25, 1574). On the entire matter see 
De Crue, "La Molle et Coconat et les negociations du parti des Politiques," Rev. 
d'hist dip., VI, 1892, p. 375. 



THE CONSPIRACY OF THE POLITIQUES 481 

in order to implicate the duke of Montmorency. The poor 
wretches had nothing of the divinity that hedged the princes of the 
blood and were inquisitorially examined and judicially murdered. ^ 
The duke of Alenfon in vain entreated for the lives of his friends. 
Charles IX, who was morbid and savage and stricken unto death^ 
would only allow that, instead of being executed in public, they 
should be put to death in prison. ^ On April 30 La Mole and 
Coconnas were beheaded and quartered. ^ 

But for once the ascendency of the queen mother over the King 
was of good effect. Charles IX was urged to mete out the same 
penalty to his brother, the marshals Cosse and Montmorency, 
and Henry of Navarre. If it had not been for powerful inter- 
vention this might have been the case.^ Imagine the astonish- 
ment of the world that expressed surprise when Phihp II im- 
prisoned his son if such an act had been done ! In the ferocious 
mood now become habitual with the King, such a thing is con- 
ceivably possible. But Catherine de Medici spared Henry of 
Navarre now, as in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, because the 
Bourbons were needful as a checkmate to the Guises. Such 
conduct, too, might have driven England and the German Protes- 
tant princes into active support of the Huguenots — a considera- 

^ Arch, cur., VIII, 127 ff. Among other charges, La Mole was accused of 
practicing sorcery — "that there should be an image of wax and a strange medal 
in the chamber of La Mole for some enchantment." — C. S. P. For., No. 1,398, 
Dr. Dale to Burghley, April 27, 1574. 

2 Ibid., April 22, 1574; No. 1,398, April 27, 1574. 

3 Ibid., Ven., No. 586, May 2, 1574. 

'* Ibid., and ibid.. For., No. 1,401, Dale to Burghley, April 30, 1574. The 
whole process was a mockery of justice. According to another report the King 
promised "that he would write to the Parlement to delay the proceedings. But 
the bearer of the letters, on arriving at Paris found the Porte St. Antoine closed. 
The execution was so much hurried that in a moment they were both executed. 
It is said this was done by reason of a perfumer relating to the first President what 
had passed in Court, and that the Queen Mother had obtained their pardon. For 
which cause they were made to come more quickly from the Conciergerie, the 
carriage made to journey hastily, and directly they arrived at the place of execution 
they were executed without the usual proclamations." — C. S. P. For., No 1,403, 
May 2, 1574. 

s Claude Haton, II, 765. 



482 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

tion which had made Catherine hesitate before August 24, 1572. 
A hving dog was better than a dead Hon.' "The King told that 
he should bear in mind that while the duke and Navarre were alive, 
he could do what he pleased, but if they were dead there would be 
no remedy." =' 

The real motive and animus of the whole cruel affair — the 
destruction of the Montmorencys by the Guises — was not long 
in forthcoming. Hitherto the duke had been allowed guarded 
freedom, even to go hunting. But within a few days after the 
death of La Mole and Coconnas came w^ord of the capture of 
Damville, Montmorency's brother, in Languedoc. Immediately 
the duke of Montmorency and the marshal Cosse were shut up 
in the Bastille. The ancient and bitter grudge of the Guises 
against the Montmorency- Chatillon house, half of which had 
been paid in the murder of the admiral, narrowly missed being 
sated at this hour. In the blood-thirsty mood in which the King 
was, the purple of kingship probably would not have protected 

1 C. 5. P. Ven., No. 584, April 19, 1574. Both Henry of Navarre and his 
fellow-prisoner seemed to have believed in these days that if Charles IX should die 
their own expectation of living would be slender, and their only hope be in corrupt- 
ing the guard. But they were without money. This is the purport of a cipher 
dispatch, dated May 22, from Paris and sent to Burghley to be deciphered by 
him personally. This he actually did, for the draft is in his handwriting {ibid., 
For., No. 1,422, 1574; cf. No. 1,431. His reply — to Walsingham — was sent three 
days later (by a slip of the pen he has, however, written "March" instead of May). 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 1,408, Dr. Dale to Burghley, May 5, 1574. See a letter 
of Emanuel Philibert of Savoy, to Charles IX protesting against the arrest of Mont- 
morency, May 19, 1574, in Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, No. 92. Elizabeth seems to 
have interested herself very much in their fate and sent Thomas Leighton to France 
in their behalf. The face of affairs thus was changed, for to give some credibility 
to her stories of a happy family, Catherine had to allow the princes more liberty. 
Besides, Leighton was captain of Guernsey, and could be of great assistance to 
Montgomery so that he had to be well treated and his desires gratified. The 
Guises, however, were gaining great influence in court again and in event of the 
King's death, Alenfon expected the Bastille. To escape this he desired money 
from Elizabeth to bribe his guards and Burghley actually recommended that this 
course be followed. De Thore, the youngest of the constable's sons, fled to Cassel 
for safety (Claude Haton, II, 763 and note). The fury of the Guises pursued him 
even in Germany (see a letter of one Davis to count John of Nassau, June 7, 1574, 
in Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, IV, 19, giving some particulars on this 
head, and one of Schomberg to the same, August 28, at p. 49). 



THE CONSPIRACY OF THE POLITIQUES 483 

the duke. But at heart Charles IX and his mother were craven 
cowards, and the latter, at least, was not wholly lost to pru- 
dence. Fortunately for the duke of Montmorency and for France, 
the w^ord of Damville's capture was a false report. He had 
intercepted the instructions sent to Joyeuse and the governor 
of Narbonne for his apprehension and taken his precautions. 
Damville was too great a lion to rouse the anger of, while he was at 
large, and nothing but treachery could overthrow him, for he was 
in possession of Beziers, Montpelher, Pasenas, Beaucaire, Boig- 
nelles, and Pont St. Esprit, and as leader of the united Politiques 
and Huguenots of the south, in control of Languedoc, Dauphind, 
and Provence.^ 

The great political anxiety he labored under aggravated the 
condition of Charles IX, whose constitution, undermined by 
smallpox and his indulgences, had now been attacked by con- 
sumption. He was reduced to skin and bone and so weak that he 
could not stand and suffered from effusion of blood through the 
mouth. ^ But the ferocity of his nature remained unsubdued. 
The faculty of medicine, the members of which were called in 
consultation, pronounced the King's condition hopeless. "I 
believe you speak truly," was Charles' comment on the verdict. 
"Draw the curtain down that I may have some rest."^ On the 

^ See C. S. P. For., No. 1,417, May 17, 1574; Hist, dii Lang., V, 520, note i. 

2 Yesterday he was more ill-at-ease than ordinarily, and no one entered his 
room, but at sunrise several gentlemen and priests came in. The priests performed 
the service, at which the queen mother was present. He has been of better coun- 
tenance since hearing of the execution of De la Mole and Coconnas, and said he 
hoped to live to see the end of all his conspirators (C 5. P. For., No. 1,403, May 2, 
1574). Early in April, two couriers were dispatched to Poland to warn Henry of 
Anjou to be ready for any emergency {ibid., Ven., No. 590, May 2, 1574). Dr. 
Dale, the English ambassador, reports, under date of May 22: "On the 22d the 
King fell suddenly sick. The audience appointed with the ambassador of the duke 
of Florence was countermanded, the best physicians sent for, and the opinion is 
that the King is in great danger. The falling down of blood into his lungs is come 
to him again, and the physicians gave their opinion that if it should happen again 
they could not assure him of any hope. Paris, 22 May, 1574." — C S. P. For., 
No. 1,422. 

3 Fremy, Un ambassadeur liberal sous Charles IX et Henri III, 226. The 
King actually said : "Tirez moy ma custode," from the Latin word custodire, to 
protect. Claude Haton, II, 767, gives an impressive account of the deathbed scene. 



484 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

night of May 29 a violent hemorrhage foretold the end. The 
King died on May 30, 1574, at two hours after noon.^ 

The queen mother at once assumed the regency^ in compliance 
with one of the last commands of Charles IX, and removed from 
the Bois de Vincennes to the Louvre^ where Alengon and Navarre 
were kept under close scrutiny, for until the return of Henry from 
Poland there was great uncertainty as to what might happen. 
The two were without money to corrupt the guards if so danger- 
ous an expedient were hazarded; the windows of their chamber 
"grated like a prison."^ Catherine's policy was to promise 
redress of grievances and reconciliation of all at the coming of 
Henry III, who learned of his brother's death at Cracow on June 
15."^ To that end she appealed to La Noue and Damville but the 
Iron Arm flouted her overtures from his strongholds of Lusignan 
and Niort, condemning the queen for her treatment of Mont- 
morency,^ and the imprisonment of Alenfon and Henry of 
Navarre. 

The last stage in the eventful career of Montgomery was also 
reached at this time. He had suddenly left Carentan with about 650 
horse, attacked the city of Alengon and then attempted to raise 
the siege of St. L6. But Matignon had more forces than he had 
supposed and drove him into Domfront. After a vigorous defense 
he yielded the place upon the promise that his life would be spared. 

1 C. S. p. Ven., No. 591, May 30, 1574. For other accounts see Arch, cur,, 
VIII, 253, 271. There is a remarkable tract in the State Paper office "giving 
particulars of the ancestors and birth of Charles IX, the civil w^ars of his reign, his 
victories, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, his famous sayings, his wife and 
daughter, his decrees, his motto, his favorite servant, his master and nurse, his 
1 iberality, his sports, his study of music and singing, the fiery spectre seen by him, 
his breaking the law, his speech in the senate, his amours, his affliction of the 
ecclesiastics, his study of liberal sciences, his food, drink, and sleep, a prodigy 
preceding his death, his sickness, his discourse before his death, his death and testa- 
ment, description of his body and stature." — C. S. P. For., No. 1,628 (1574), 
The queen of France returned to Vienna and died in a convent in 1592. 

2 Isambert, XIV, 262. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 1,448, June 10, 1574. 

4 Henry III, to Elizabeth (see Appendix XXXV). 
s C. S. P. For., Nos. 1,449 ^"^^ i)464, anno 1574. 




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THE CONSPIRACY OF THE POLITIQUES 4^5 

But Catherine de Medici hated him above all men in the earth 
and had no scruples about inaugurating the reign of Henry III 
with bloodshed. She refused to honor Matignon's pledge. Mont- 
gomery was brought under heavy guard to Paris, being viewed 
by curious gazers all along the road, and was beheaded and then 
quartered on June 26, before an enormous crowd of people. 

9 Catherine risked a Protestant uprising in order to sate her vengeance upon 
the man who had slain Henry II. The Venetian ambassador, however, con- 
jectured that there was more of policy than of revenge in the act, "It was cer- 
tainly more to please the Parisians from whom she hoped to have efi&cient aid than 
for any other reason that she had Montgomery put to death." — C. S. P. Ven., 
No. 588, May 20, No. 597, June, 1574. Matignon was made a marshal of France 
as his reward (ibid., For., No. 176, June 13, 1575). For particulars of Montgom- 
ery's execution see Arch, cur., VIII, 223 ff.; and the Discours de la mart et execution 
de Gabriel comte de Montgommery, par arrest de la court, four les conspirations par 
luy commises contre le roy, Lyon: Benoist Rigaud, 1574. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES. THE PEACE OF MONSIEUR 

(1576) 

The attention of Europe was fixed upon France by these events. 
What was going to happen in the absence of the heir to the throne ? 
Would a frightful wave of retaliatory vengeance for the massacre 
of St. Bartholomew and the process of Vincennes sweep over the 
land ? These were the questions that were asked, not only every- 
where in France, but in many quarters of Europe. The Tuscan 
ambassador wrote that the chateaux of the Montmorencys wefe 
filled with provisions and munitions of war.^ 

The Pohtiques, as a class, being imbued with Hotman's teach- 
ings in the Franco-Gallia, inveighed against Catherine for having 
assumed the regency without consent of the estates. They and 
the political Huguenots were at one, and demanded searching 
reform. It was their hope to prevail upon the queen mother to 
come to a definite agreement before the arrival of Henry III in 
France, in the expectation that the King upon his arrival would 
find it expedient to accept it. They demanded the reorganization 
of justice and the army; they condemned the ahenation of the 
crown lands, increase of the tithe, and the new taxes; they insisted 
upon an examination of the accounts of those who had managed 
the public finances and the royal revenue, this investigation to 
include not only the ministers who had enriched themselves, but 
also the superintendents of finance from Henry II down to the 
present time, not excepting the cardinal of Lorraine. They 
demanded the expulsion of the "foreigners," naming the chancel- 
lor Biragues, the marshal de Retz, and the duke of Nevers who 
were all Italians. They hated the Guises as a foreign house and 
quasi- German. = 

It was high time for some sort of settlement. The country 

1 Neg. Tosc, III, 926-27, April 5 and May 11, 1574. 

2 "Tenuti per forastieri e Alemanni." — Rel. ven., II, 228. 

486 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 487 

was crying out against the thieves and brigands, who frequented 
the roads in great numbers under the guise of vv^ar and pretended 
to be in the service of the King.^ 

But Catherine refused to deal with any matter of state until 
the arrival of the King. She showed an almost feverish anxiety 
for her son's coming, fearing that the duke of Alenfon would be 
put forward for the crown by the Politiques.^ In Germany, at 
the same time, the Orange party, with the aid of Schomberg, 
labored to promote the cause of the Politiques and liberal Hugue- 
nots, and in September a deputation came from the count palatine 
to urge the cause of toleration in France. ^ But it was slow and 
hard work, for as La None had bitterly said the year before : " The 
ifon of the German nation was heavy and hard to work; it was 
silver that made things move."^ Moreover, the agents of Spain 
and the Guises were encountered at every turn. 

In the meantime Henry III had left Cracow on June 16, running 
away from his kingdom like a thief in the night, ^ and came home 

1 Claude Haton, II, 778. These bandits were sometimes called "Foruscits" 
or " Fuorisciti," from the Italian uscir fuora (see a letter of the cardinal of Armagnac 
in Rev. hist., II, 529). 

"En 1576 les paysans du Dauphine s'etant souleves, entreprirent vainement 
ce qu'ils ont execute plus de deux siecles apres cette epoque. lis se rassemblerent 
en un corps considerable pour piller et brdler les chateaux, et exterminer les gentils- 
hommes. Mandalot, a la tete d'une troupe determinee, dissipa avec promptitude 
ce rassemblement qu'on appela la ' Ligue des Vilains.' " — Histoire ou memoire de 
ce qui se passa a Lyons pendant la ligue, appelee la Sainte-Union, jusqu'a la reddition 
de la ville sous I'obeissance du roi Henri IV, Bibliotheque de Lyon, No. 1,361. 

2 "On taschast de reconcilier par tous moyens les malcontens et principale- 
ment ceux qui, par le passe, ont eu credit et autorite en France, qui pourront aug- 
menter les troubles et soustenir la mauvaise et pernicieuse volonte de ceux qui 
voudroient invertir I'ancienne et naturelle succession de la couronne de France." — 
Du Ferrier to Catherine de Medici, June, 1574, in Fremy, Un ambassadeur liberal 
sous Charles IX et Henri III, 235. 

3 Articles proposed by the count palatine's ambassador for a pacification 
(C S. P. For., No. 1,556, anno 1574). The post was subsidized by the French 
King by way of Reinhausen, Neustadt, Kaiserslautern, Limbach (near Hamburg), 
Saarbriick, St. Avoid, and Metz {Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, V, 49). 

4 Vie de La Noue, 87. 

s The Poles made a hard attempt to prevent Henry from leaving the kingdom. 
They were dissatisfied that he assumed the title King of France without consulting 



488 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

by way of Italy, via Venice, where he was extravagantly enter- 
tained by the senate,^ Ferrara (July 29), Mirandola, Mantua, 
and Turin, which he left on August 28, and arrived at Lyons on 
September 6.^ Catherine, who showed great impatience, met him 
there (she arrived at Lyons on August 27). So fearful was she 
lest Alengon and Henry of Navarre would escape that the young 
princes had traveled in the coach with her.^ The procession moved 
as if through a hostile country by way of Burgundy and Chalons- 
sur-Saone, some of the guard marching in advance, the rest 
bringing up the rear. " Marshal de Retz was always on the wing 
of her. Some of the guard marched two leagues before and some 
two leagues after."^ 

Those who were at all optimistic had clung to the belief, until 
the development of events shattered their hopes, that Henry III 
would endeavor to pacify his subjects, arguing that if he were 
inclined to war, he would not have refused the assistance proffered 
him in Italy of men and money, and that the French crown could 
not further hazard the reduction of the kingdom piecemeal. ^ 
Damville had met the King at Turin, having come there under a 
safe-conduct of the duke of Savoy, to persuade Henry III to adopt 
a conciliatory policy, which he at first inclined to follow. 

But the moment he came under the sinister influence of Cather- 
ine de Medici, he cast this prudent advice to the winds. It was 

them, and wanted him to govern his new kingdom through ministers chosen from 
among them, and to employ himself in military exploits against the Tartars and 
Turks (Languet, Epist. seer., I, 121). 

1 Fremy, Un amhassadeur liberal sous Charles IX et Henri III, 232. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 1,543, September 10, 1574. 

3 The duke and his fellow-captives made several efforts to escape, in one of 
which Alengon narrowly missed doing so (see the account in C. S. P. Ven., No. 
600, July 26, 1574). In consequence, when Catherine started to meet her son at 
Lyons, leaving the government of Paris in care of the Parlement (ibid.. No. 1,509, 
July 10, 1574), the young princes traveled in the coach with her. "Her chick- 
ens go in coach under her wing, and so she minds to bring them to the King." 
— Ibid., For., No. 1,511, Dale to Walsingham, August 9, 1574. 

4 Ibid., No. 1,537, Dale to Sir Thomas Smith and Francis Walsingham, 
September 2, 1574, from Lyons. 

5 See the striking comments of the Venetian ambassador, Rel. ven., II, 245, 246. 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 489 

she who dissuaded him from what was wisely counseled^ and in 
advance of his arrival had made military preparations to resume 
the war by importing Swiss mercenaries and German reiters again. ^ 
Accordingly, instead of extending the olive branch, the King ex- 
pressed his determination to wage unremitting war upon the 
Huguenots and Politiques rather than grant the demands they 
made. The deputies of La Rochelle who came to Lyons, requesting 
a surcease of arms, were repulsed by the King and told it was but 
a scheme of the Huguenots to gain time for preparation. The 
estabhshment of three camps was ordered, one in Dauphine, the 
second in Provence and Languedoc, and the third in Poitou. At 
the same time Schomberg and Fregoso were sent into Germany 
for assistance. 3 

When Henry III definitely resolved to follow out a policy of 
suppression Damville was summoned to Lyons to answer for his 
governorship. It was a fatal blunder on the part of the King, for 
the action of the crown hardened the tentative co-operation of 
the Protestants and the Politiques into a positive alliance. At 
Milhau, in August, 1574 the Protestants recognized Damville, 
while he in turn admitted their leaders into his council. The form 
of government established at Montauban the year before acquired 
new strength and greater extent. Provincial and general assem- 
blies were formed without distinction between Protestants and 
Politiques, upon the basis of mutual toleration; in places where 

^ Rel. ven., II, 245, 246. 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 1,543, September 10, 1574, No. 1,555, September 11, 1574; 
Thomas Wilkes to Walsingham and Dr. Dale to Sir Thomas Smith and Walsingham. 
There were 6,500 Swiss at Chalons (ibid., No. 1,537, September 2, 1574). Henry 
III had sent orders in advance of his coming, commanding that on the 30th of 
August all the companies of ordinance should retire in garrison and await the orders 
of the provincial governors. Troops were levied in Picardy, Champagne, Brie, 
Burgundy, and Lorraine, to prevent the Protestant reiters from gaining entrance into 
the country and were put under the command of the duke of Guise, Vaudemont, 
and the marshal Strozzi (Claude Haton, II, 779). 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 1,590, November 4, 1574. The headquarters of the 
Catholic forces were between Dijon and Langres, but troops patrolled the whole 
course of the Marne and extended westward to Sens. Artillery was sent up the 
Seine from Paris. The camp of the horse was fi.xed near Troyes (Claude Haton, 
III, 779). 



49° THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the two creeds obtained each side promised to observe the peace 
and Damville engaged not to introduce the CathoHc rehgion in 
any town of which the Huguenots were masters. 

The men who took this step justified it by alleging that a foreign 
faction had acquired control over the sovereign; that it was de- 
stroying the kingdom, the nobles, the princes of the blood, and 
with them the very institutions and civilization of France; and 
that it was their hope to arrest this process. The programme of the 
Huguenot-Politique party, in addition to complete religious tolera- 
tion, insisted upon the abolition of the practice of selling offices, 
the convocation of the States- General, the reduction of the taxes. 
In this demand they were supported by the provincial states of 
Dauphine, Provence, and Burgundy. The confessional idea was 
deliberately kept in the background. Men no longer talked of a 
war of religion, but of a " Guerre du Bien Public" as in the reign 
of Louis XI. 

With the nobles Damville's was a name to conjure with. A 
large portion of the CathoHc nobility, who for a long time had been 
severely reproached for not seriously opposing the Huguenots, 
sympathized with his attitude. If the bench and bar of France 
was strongly attached to the principles of the Catholic rehgion, 
the nobility who were hereditary enemies of the legists, whose 
teachings had for three centuries tended to abridge their feudal 
rights, out of sheer self-interest, aside from any other motives, 
now inclined toward the Calvinists. Only radical Calvinists, like 
Du Plessis-Mornay, opposed the union and were bitter in denun- 
ciation of the overtures made by their more moderate brethren, 
notably La Noue, to Damville and the Politiques.' 

A royal edict let the Huguenots understand w^hat was to be 
expected. The King's determination was to clear the valley of 
the Rhone from Lyons to Avignon wdth the aid of the Swiss and 
then to subdue Languedoc on the one side and Dauphine on the 
other. Such a plan w^as more bold than practicable, and Henry 
was likely to find it too hard to accomplish, especially by winter 

I De Thou, Book L, chap, xii; Vie de Mornay, 23; Coll. Godefroy, CCLIX, 
No. 2, "Les habitants du diocese de Montpellier au roi, 4 juin, 1574." 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 49 1 

sieges. The Protestants had fortified themselves in Livron on 
the left bank of the Rhone and at Pouzin across the river, which 
was inaccessible except by one approach and then only four men 
could advance abreast. 

But there was another matter, the difficulty of which Henry III 
underestimated, namely the army. The Protestants were so 
entrenched in their strongholds as to make the use of horsemen 
against them impracticable. The Swiss were low-class mercena- 
ries, good as ordinary footmen but useless for a siege. Moreover, 
all of them, reiters and Swiss, were not disposed to move unless 
they saw their pay in their hands and were utter strangers to dis- 
cipline, wasting the country "to make a Christian man's heart 
bleed." ^ In one case the wretched peasantry followed their de- 
spoilers to the confines of Lyons and fell upon them in desperation, 
recovering what had been taken from them. What did the King 
do ? He actually had to punish these wretched subjects of his 
in order to retain the services of the reiters at all ! 

Yet the King for a moment showed some of the old fire he dis- 
played at Moncontour and amazed the Protestants by taking 
Pouzin after three weeks of siege. The victory was marred, though, 
by the shameful conduct of the Swiss, the reiters, and the Italians 
in the royal army, who sacked and burned it. Much the same 
state of things prevailed wherever these riotous plunderers pene- 
trated — in Picardy, in Champagne, in Poitou. But Henry III 
having reached Avignon, discovered that he was no better off 
for his success. Meanwhile Damville, with whom the duke of 
Savoy had honorably dealt, returned from Turin, and reached the 
vicinity of Montpellier and Beaucaire before the King was aware 
of it.^ 

When the King sent the cardinal of Bourbon to talk with him, 
Damville sent back word that he thought the example of his brother 
" too dangerous to come to court where they who sought the ruin 
of his house had too much credit, "^ and advised the King to remove 

1 For other interesting details see C. S. P. For., No. 1,568, September 29, 1574. 

2 Le Laboureur, II, 135. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 1,584, October 23, 1574. 



492 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the strangers within his gates, meaning Biragues and De Retz.' 
Henry III could accomphsh nothing at Avignon and yet knew 
not how to get away. He could not go up-river on account of the 
current. The Huguenots at Livron barred the road on the left 
bank; Montbrun was in the hills in Auvergne; La Noue's men 
were stopping the King's post daily and Damville controlled Pro- 
vence and Languedoc; La Haye, King's lieutenant in the sene- 
chaussee of Poitou seceded to the Politiques.^ Vivarais declared 
its neutrality and refused to side with King or Politiques. The 
people of Tulle refused to pay taxes either to Catholics or Protes- 
tants until overpowered by the latter, and thus the country con- 
tinued to endure a war which it hated. Henry truly was in a 
plight. He was without money, too, and could not hope to get 
any so far from Paris. He even feared that the soldiery with him 
might be bribed to desert. ^ To crown the royal anxiety Dam- 
ville's declaration was so public and so bold that the King feared 
that foreign aid would soon be forthcoming in the Protestant serv- 
ice. The fear was not without ground. For the marshal actually 
proposed to make a league with the Sultan and introduce a Turk- 
ish fleet into the harbor of Aigues-Mortes.-* Coupled with this 
possibility was a projected enterprise against Spain in Franche 
Comte in which the Huguenots of Champagne and Burgundy 
were interested, but which was primarily the project of the elector 
palatine and the prince of Orange. ^ 

1 Schomberg's comment is amusing: "Monsieur le mareschal Damphille 
se contint sagement, dont les ennemis de ceste maison s'arrachent la barbe." — 
August 28, 1574, in Arch, de la maison d^ Orange-Nassau, 49. 

2 Chroniques fontenaisiennes, 228-32; L'Estoile, I, 37; Weill, 137, note 3. 

3 "A little piece of money might win the reiters to join with them of the re- 
ligion." — C. S. P. For., No. 1,623, December 23, 1574. 

4 Aigues-Mortes was a strong port and the staple of salt for Languedoc, Dau- 
phine, the Lyonnais, and Burgundy {ibid., No. 17, January 25, 1575). Dr. Dale 
thought that the project was to connive at a Turkish attack in Germany for the 
purpose of embarrassing the Catholic princes there {ibid., No. 1,620, December 
23> 1574- 

5 The plot was an old one and long in preparation. See a letter of St. Goard 
to the King, May 20, 1573 {Archives de la maisojt d'Orange-Nassau, lY, Appendix, 
No. 59. The Spanish had been advised by word from Besanfon, on April 3, that 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 493 

It is a significant fact that the war has now lost almost all con- 
fessional character and become a factional conflict between the 
rival houses of Guise and Montmorency. Catholicism and politi- 
cal corruption on the one hand were opposed to administrative 
reform and religious toleration. After the creation of the Politique 
party, the Huguenots of state had merged with them. Except 
in the case of radical Calvinists and bigoted Catholics, religion 
had become a minor issue with the French unless it were artificially 
exaggerated.' It was a mortal enmity on either side, and one 
which there was shght hope of setthng. The hostility of the Guises 
and the Montmorencys was the real seed of the civil war.^ It 
depended upon the individual in almost every case whether his 
participation one way or the other was motived by convictions as 
to the public good or by private interests. The number of those 
who directly or indirectly were attached to the warring houses 
almost divided the realm between them and the wretched people 
were badly treated by both parties. ^ So widespread and deep 
rooted was this mutual enmity throughout France, that the Vene- 
tian ambassador, no mean observer, wondered when it would end, 
because it was to the interest of each to sustain it. The King was 
a shuttlecock in this game of pohtical battledore. The ruin of the 
crown, instead of being feared by them, was regarded as a possible 

those of Geneva and Bern had confederated with the Lutheran cantons and se- 
cured the favor of the duke John Casimir, whose purpose was to overcome Besanfon 
and the free county of Burgundy (cf. letter of De Grantyre, the French agent in the 
Grisons, to Bellievre, April 8, 1573, Coll. Godefroy, CCLVIII, No. 52, and 
the letter of Charles IX to Bellievre, May 9, 1573, ibid., No. 55). The author of 
the plan was a Dr. Butterich, councilor of the elector (Archives de la maison 
d' Orange-Nassau, V, 89, 99, loi, 107, 120-3. The Swiss cantons were also ap- 
pealed to, but Beza hesitated (ibid., in). Spain had secret information of the 
plot (ibid., 89). It finally failed (see a letter of Butterich to John of Nassau, 
June 6, 1575, ibid., 214; cf. Languet, Epist. seer., I, Part II, 106, July 11, 1575). 

1 An example of eccentric partisanship is afforded by the duke d'Uzes, who 
was a Huguenot, but who for enmity toward Damville joined the King. Henry 
III made him a marshal and left him in chief command when he went to Rheims 
(C. S. P. For., No. 1,617, December 23, 1574; No. 13, January 16, 1575). Belle- 
garde was also made marshal in this year (ibid.. No. 1,570, September 29, 1574). 

2 "Seminario della guerra." — Rel. ven., II, 230. 

3 Claude Haton, I, 782, 783. 



494 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

way to give their enmity freer rein. Each party counted not only 
upon paying its debts, which were enormous, by victory, but in 
estabhshing the power of its house more permanently than ever 
for the future. While the war cost the King and the country 
ecus par milliers, it cost them nothing, at least of their own. The 
weakness of the crown was the strength of the rivals. They fat- 
tened on war, for peace deprived them of their authority, their 
power, and their partisans. Until one or the other faction was 
crushed, the hostility was certain to endure, and thus the war 
seemed doomed to last indefinitely. If, as the result of fatigue 
or a truce, a respite was made, the time was brief, and was termi- 
nated as soon as one or the other side had accumulated some sub- 
stance again. The only remedy for such a state of affairs was to 
be found in a foreign war, either in Flanders or Italy. ^ 

The union of the Huguenots and the Politiques made them very 
strong, especially in the south. But on the other hand the duke 
of Guise received much assistance from Flanders. When the 
successor of Alva, Requesens, learned of the death of Charles IX, 
he had offered the aid of Spanish troops to Catherine de Medici.^ 
Although the proffer was dechned, the practical result was the 
same, for owing to lack of pay in the Low Countries, thousands 
of reiters and Walloon and German footmen flocked across the 
border in the summer and autumn, where they were welcomed 
by the duke of Guise, who, somewhere and somehow, found the 
means to pay them.^ But below the stratum of professional sol- 
diers in France there was another class in arms which feudal 
society was not used to see in such a capacity. This was the 
people; not town militia, for town and provincial leagues had made 
men familiar with them, but the peasantry. The protracted wars 
by economically ruining and morally debauching this class had 

1 See the luminous Relazione del Giovanni Michel, the Venetian ambassador 
in France in 1575, ed. Tommaseo, II, 229-33. 

2 Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, III, 105, note, June 15, 1574. 

3 Ibid., 165-66, Requesens to Philip II, September 24, 1574: "II y a en 
France beaucoup d'Espagnols qui ont deserte des Pays-Bas; il sont recueillis par 
M. de Guise et d'autres qui leur font un bon traitement et leur donnent de grosses 
payes." M. Gachard has paraphrased the letter. 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 



495 



generated a breed of men who sprang from the soil hke the dragon's 
teeth of Greek fable, men who by observation and practice were 
used to the matchlock and the sword, brutalized by oppression, 
long made desperate by burdensome taxes and the wrongs of war.'^ 
The weariness of vigil in the depth of winter and overconfidence 
seem to have relaxed the alertness of Henry Ill's foes. At any 




PIKEMAN AND COLOR-BEARER 

(Tortorel and Perissin) 

rate, having extorted 50,000 francs from the noblemen and gentle- 
men in his train in order to pay the soldiery around him, the King, 
raising the siege of Livron on January 24, 1575, managed to slip 
through the defiles to Rheims for his coronation. The coronation 

I "La longa continuazione della guerra, che tutti li paesani che prima erano 
disarmati e vilissimi, tutti dati all' arte del campo e all' agricolturai owero ad 
alcuna delle arti mecaniche, adesso sono tutti armati, e talmente essercitati e 
agguerriti che non si distinguono dalli piil veterani soldati; tutti fatti archibugieri 
eccellentissimi." — "Relazione del Giovanni Michel," Rel. ven., II, 232; cf. Long, 
167: "Des violences et des outrages exerces par quelques petits gentilhommes 



496 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

was a triumph of the Guises. For far from being set back by 
the death of the cardinal of Lorraine on December 29, at Avignon' 
their star seemed to be higher than before. The cardinal of 
Guise took the place of his deceased uncle as primate of Rheims; 
the duke of Guise was grand chamberlain; and the duke of May- 
enne and the marquis d'Elboeuf were the chief lay peers. The 
sole outsider was De Retz who officiated as constable for the occa- 
sion. The crowning took place on February 15. Shortly after 
the event, apparently in a sudden whim of passion, Henry III 
married Louise de Vaudmont, whose father was uncle of the duke 
of Lorraine and whose mother had been sister of the unfortunate 
Egmont. But the marriage was without political significance 
— indeed the new queen was of so little station that Catherine de 
Medici, in a letter to Queen Ehzabeth, expressed her humihation 
at her son's marriage.^ 

The main issues of France, religious toleration and political 
reform, were now more obscured than ever by the rivalry of 

sur des paysans exciterent la vengeance des villageois voisins, qui, furieux, accou- 
rurent en grand nombre. Les provocateurs imprudents se sauverent, mais leur 
maisons furent pillees et saccagees. On voit deja la haine du peuple, pousse au 
desespoir par les impots et par les exacteurs, contra les privilegies. Le peuple, 
si mal dispose, ne devait pas 6tre provoque dans son ressentiment. Les defen- 
seurs de la cause commune vont se lever." 

1 The English ambassador gives particulars of the cardinal's death. "The 
King would needs go in procession with the Battus, who are men that whip them- 
selves as they go as a sort of penance. The cardinal went in this solemn procession 
well-nigh all the night, and the next day he said mass for a solemnity, wherewith he 
took a great cold and a continual fever which brought him into a frenzy, wherein 
he continued divers days. A Jew took upon him to work wonders and gave him a 
medicine whereby he came to his remembrance for a time. Upon the medicine 
there did break out certain pustules or spots in his body like the pourpres, whereby 
some would say he was poisoned. Shortly after he fell into his old frenzy and so 
died, the i8th day after he first fell sick." — C. 5. P. For., No. 1,624, December, 
1574- 

2 Ibid., No. 58, March 23, 1575. This letter is not printed in the Correspondance 
de Catherine de Medicis. The Venetian ambassador has a long and interesting 
character-sketch of the queen in Rel. ven., II, 243. There are several monographs 
upon this "pure, douce et melancolique figure" (Galitizin, Louise de Lorraine 
reine de France (ljjJ-1601); Meaume, Etude historique sur Louise de Lorraine 
reine de France (ljjJ-1601), Paris, 1882; Baillon, Histoire de Louise de Lor- 
raine, reine de France, l§jJ-i6oi, Paris, 1884. 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 



497 



the factions around the throne. The queen mother bore the 
Guises greater hatred than before because of their new ascendency 
and had httle less spleen toward the Montmorencys, but care- 
fully dissimulated and sought on one pretext and another to remove 
them from around her son. For this purpose Bellegarde, who 
was an old attache of the house of Montmorency and owed his 
popularity with the King to a handsome face and a well-turned 




ARQUEBUSIER 
(Tortorel and Perissin) 

leg, was^made a^^special ambassador to Poland in order to get him 
out of the way. His comrade on the mission was Elboeuf — an ill- 
matched pair indeed. Their business was to carry 200,000 crowns 
of the Paris bourgeois to Poland to bribe the Pohsh diet not to 
elect a successor to the absent Henry. If the Poles were obdurate, 
Elbceuf was to advocate the election of the duke of Ferrara, who 
had Guisard blood in his veins. At the same time Biron and 
Matignon were made marshals to counterpoise the influence of 
De Retz who forthwith resigned his office and vowed he would 
"meddle no more." There were heart-burnings, also, over the 



49^ THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

bestowal of the government of Normandy, vacated by the death 
of the duke of Bouillon. The duke of Nevers claimed that it had 
been promised him while in Poland; the duchess of Nemours 
demanded the post for the duke and declared that Nevers was "a 
foreigner." Henry III finally sought to compromise by giving 
the ofhce to his insignificant father-in-law, whereupon the duke 
of Nevers quit the court in a rage. Squabbles of precedence, too, 
vexed the King's mind. Montpensier challenged the claims of 
the Guises to court precedence before the Parlement, and Madame 
de Nemours therefore quarreled with her daughter. " They were 
all bent to preparations of war," quaintly wrote Dale to Walsing- 
ham, " but these domestic discords do tame them. It is a very hell 
among them, not one content or in quiet with another, nor mother 
with son, nor brother with brother, nor mother with daughter."^ 

The state of the finances was deplorable, and Henry resorted 
to various devices to provide himself with funds. The mission of 
Elboeuf and Bellegarde to Poland was delayed, w^hile the King 
implored the Pope, the duke of Savoy, and Venice for the money 
needed;^ the pay of the King's household servants was nine months 
in arrears and the last money wages of his guards had been paid 
by an assessment levied by the King upon the noblemen and gen- 
tlemen of the court. Paris, as usual, was heavily mulcted by a 
forced loan of 600,000 francs, besides heavy contributions extorted 
from the foreign merchants there. But the mass of the money had 
to come from the church lands. A letter-patent in the form of an 
edict was forced through the Parlement authorizing the ahenation 
of 200,000 livres de rente of the temporalities of the clergy, the 
King reckoning to raise a million and a half of francs by the process, 
but few were ready purchasers. In addition to these practices 
the "parties casuelles" were farmed to a Florentine money-broker 
named Diaceto for 60,000 francs per month. Henry III resorted 
to worse expedients than these, though. He sold four seats in 
his council for 15,000 livres each; forced the collectors of the 
revenue to anticipate the revenue for a twelve-month and then dis- 

I C. S. P. For., No. T,T„ March 3, 1575. 

= The Pope finally advanced a sum upon the security of the crown jewels 
(C. 5. P. For., No. 168, June 6, 1575). 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 499 

possessed them of their posts after he had deprived them of the 
profits thereof and sold them to others; and dilapidated the forest 
domain by selhng two trees in each arpent.' 

The position and conduct of Damville afforded the greatest 
hope for the future if Henry III could have been made to see things 
in the right way. Damville himself dominated all Languedoc 
and Provence; his Heutenant, Montbrun, controlled Dauphine; 
Turenne was in possession of Auvergne; the Rochellois had agents 
at court seeking for a firm settlement of affairs; even the cardinal 
Bourbon and the duke of Montpensier leaned to the side of the 
Pohtiques. In 1575 the existence of the old party of Huguenots, 
the Huguenots of religion, was practically at an end. Individual 
radical Calvinists there were in plenty but the Protestant organi- 
zation was that of the political Huguenots. 

It was manifest by the spring of 1575 that the prince of Conde 
and Henry of Navarre on the one hand, and Damville and his 
brother, together with Alenfon, were bound to join hands in the 
common purpose to establish permanent religious and greater 
civil liberty in France. "Liberty and reform" was the policy of 
the hour, if not the watchword. The declaration of the assembly 
of Milhau in August of the previous year had been the hand- 
writing on the wall — a message which the misguided Henry III 
obdurately refused to read. On April 25, 1575, that message was 
repeated in even clearer terms in the form of a manifesto issued by 
Damville which defined the joint pohcy of the Pohtiques and the 
political Huguenots. It was the declaration of a patriot, and not a 
partisan, least of all a rebel, who, like Cromwell, found himself com- 
pelled to lead a movement for political reform against an obstinate 
crown that either would not or could not understand the issues.^ 

1 C. S. P. For., Nos. 55, 57, 67, March, 1575. The clergy in Dauphine protested 
against the burden laid upon the church there by the King's measure, complaining 
that its support was not costing the crown a sou there; one of them even had the 
face to declare that they had more to hope from Damville than from the King 
{ihid., No. 67, March, 1575). 

2 Declaration et protestation de Henry de Montmorency, seigneur Damville, 
mareschal de France, gouverneur et lieutenant general pour le Roy en Languedoc. 
Issued from Nimes, April 25, 1575. There is an abstract of it in C. S. P. For., 
No. 106, 1575. 



500 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Reading between the lines of the constitution agreed upon at 
Nimes, the repubhcan nature of the government therein provided 
for is noticeable.^ The right to exercise the sovereign rights of 
legislation, of justice, of taxation, of making war and peace, 
of regulating commerce no longer were vested in the King where 
the Act of Union prevailed, but in a representative body. Langue- 
doc, Provence, and Dauphine were de facto independent of the 
crown.^ Supplementary articles of Conde and Damville, and of the 
Catholics and Protestants of Languedoc, Provence, and Dauphine 
demanded (i) that freedom of exercise of religion without distinc- 
tion be permitted ; (2) that the parlements should be composed half 
of Catholics, and half of Protestants, the latter to be nominated by 
the prince of Conde; (3) that justice be done upon the authors of the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew and the forfeit and attainder of the 
admiral be reversed; (4) that the places at present held by the 
Huguenots be retained besides Boulogne and La Charite, and that 
for additional defense the King should give them in each prov- 
ince two out of three towns to be named to him by the prince of 
Conde; (5) that the King pay 200,000 crowns for expenses of the 
war; (6) that neither the marshal de Retz, nor the chancellor 
Biragues should have any part in the negotiations for peace; (7) 
that the duke of Montmorency and the marshal Cosse should be 
set at liberty, and their innocence declared in full Parlement "en 
robe rouge;" (8) that the heirs of those who have been murdered 
should have their estates returned to them; (9) that the queen of 
England, the elector palatine, and the dukes of Savoy and Deux- 

1 "L'organisation politique de cette Union (Union protestante) fut elaboree dans 
les assemblees tenues a Milhau, en decembre, 1573, at en juillet, 1574. La base 
fut I'autonomie des villes, que usurperent peu a peu I'administration. La Rochelle 
et Montauban confierent I'autorite a des chefs electifs, pris dans la bourgeoisie. 
En suite ces republiques urbaines se federerent. II fut decide que chaque generalite 
aurait son assemblee et que delegues des generalites formeraient les etats generaux 
de I'Union. Ainsi se constitua au sein du royaume une republique federative, ou 
I'element aristocratique ne tarda pas a dominer (Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire 
generate, V, 147; cf. Cougny, "Le parti republicain sous Henri III," Memoires de la 
Sorbonne, 1867; Hippeau, "Les idees republicaines sous le regne de Henri III," 
Revue des Soc. savant, des depart., IV^ ser., III. 

2 L'Estoile, I, 3, 38. 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 501 

ponts should be parties to the peace; (10) that within three months 
after peace the States- General be assembled to establish good 
order in France.' 

For a while there seemed to be a prospect of the King yielding 
to these demands. He was growing jealous of the influence of 
the Guises, and began to perceive that coercion was impossible.^ 
At the first audience Henry received the deputies graciously, saying 
he "liked their speech, but their articles were hard." The articles 
were debated seriatim by the King, both with the deputies and 
with the council. The chief hitch was upon the fourth demand. 
The King was willing to permit exercise of Protestant worship 
in one town in each bailiwick, except closed towns, whereas the 
deputies demanded freedom of worship in all places in the suburbs 
as provided by the Edict of January. As a matter of prudence, 
it would seem to have been better policy for the crown to permit 
worship in the suburbs of all towns rather than exact a provision 
requiring concentration of the Protestants in one place in each 
bailiwick; however, the King probably thought Calvinism would 
be less likely to spread under such a restriction than if the Hugue- 
nots enjoyed numerous places of worship.^ The queen mother 
sought to persuade Montmorency to use his influence to abate 
the demands with promise of release from the Bastille as his reward. 
But the duke replied that " if his imprisonment might do the King 
pleasure or profit he was content to be there all his life; but to 
meddle in the peace, or to write of that matter, never understand- 
ing their doings, were to make himself guilty in it, and to be thought 
to make himself to be an instrument to their ruin, and therefore 
it were ill for him."^ Thereupon Henry III broke off the nego- 
tiations hoping still, as earlier, to be able to separate the Hugue- 
nots and the united Catholics. 

' I have availed myself of the synopsis in C. S. P. For., No. 112, May, 1575. 

2 Dr. Junius to the prince of Conde, Archives de la maison d' Orange-Nassau, 
V, 237. 

3 See Dr. Dale's observations in letter to Burghley, May 21, 1575; C. S. P. 
For., No. 138. 

4 Ibid., No. 121, May 4, 1575. Through the duke of Savoy Henry III seems 
to have offered to set Montmorency free, provided Damville would deliver up Aigues- 
Mortes (ibid.. No. 168, June 6, 1575). 



502 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Events thereafter thickened rapidly. Narbonne, Perigueux, 
and Tournon in Lyonnais were taken by the Huguenot-PoKtique 
armies. The last place was got by Damville himself. Tournon 
was an especially strong town on the Rhone about three leagues 
from Valence, with Livron to the south of it. The capture so 
discouraged the duke d'Uzes that he requested leave to resign on 
account of the desertions among his following. ' Instead command 
was given him, "to spoil Languedoc in order to famish them against 
winter." But the duke was too wise to obey and Damville was 
permitted to gather in the harvest without molestation. For if 
the King had tried ravaging, the whole country would have risen 
against him. St. Jean-d'Angely, Angouleme, and Nerac revolted 
so far as to expel the garrisons in the town. In Burgundy, where 
Tavannes had founded the League of the Holy Spirit, a Politique 
league was formed.^ The narrow escape Darnville had at this 
time from death by poison drew men more than ever to him. As 
a climax to the woes of Henry III on July 15, 1575, the Polish diet 
declared the throne vacant, absolving all from allegiance to him.^ 

The spontaneous nature of the rising of the country in the sum- 
mer of 1575 is an interesting historical phenomenon. It was by 
no means confined to the south of France. In Champagne, the 
nobles, some of them vassals of Guise, and peasants united to fall 
upon the reiters. Madame de Guise fled from Joinville in fear 
of being surprised by a sixteenth-century Jacquerie. In Brittany 
there was a similar stir when the King attempted to confiscate the 
extensive lands of the duke of Rohan upon his death. Certain 
things remind one of happenings in the French Revolution. Many 
in Champagne left the land and went into the borders of Ger- 
many like the " emigres " after August 4, 1 789. In Paris there were 
house-to-house visits not unlike those of September, 1793. There 
was universal feeling against the reiters. In Normandy an asso- 

1 C. S. p. For., Nos. 114 and 287, anno 1575. 

2 Letter of the duke of Guise to M. de Luxembourg from Chalons, September 
3i I575> Coll. des autographes, 1846, No. 213. The duke of Guise was anxious for 
the safety of Langres. 

3 C. S. P. For., No. 235, July 15, 1575, from Cracow. 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES - 503 

elation of gentlemen was formed for the special purpose of pro- 
tecting the country from them/ 

The anxiety of the government was all the greater because it 
was not exactly known what relations existed between the Hugue- 
nots and Politiques and the English. The treaty which had 
obtained between Charles IX and Elizabeth was renewed by the 
latter on April i, 1575, and confirmed by Henry III on May 4.^ 
But Elizabeth was not the person to be bound by official word. 
On the Picardy-Flemish border mutual distrust prevailed. In 
December, 1574, Requesens had advised Philip II of his fear of 
the renewal of Huguenot activity in the Low Countries, which 
had been dead since the Genlis disaster, ^ and the garrisons on the 
frontiers had been increased accordingly. The marriage of Henry 
III to Louise de Vaudemont gave the Spanish governor great in- 
quietude, for the unfortunate Egmont was her uncle, and Egmont's 
eldest son, in March, visited his royal cousin of France.^* Reque- 
sens was apprehensive, too, of a marriage between the duke of 
Alenfon and the daughter of William of Orange,^ and over the 
fact that the French envoy in Flanders, the sieur de Mondoucet, 
prudently avoided using the official post, but employed his own 
couriers in dispatching missives to Paris.'' "All the neighboring 
states are actuated by malicious intentions, " he wailed to Philip 11. 

I C. S. P. For., No. 345, September 13, 1575. In Appendix XXXIV will be 
found a long account in Latin from the pen of Dr. Dale upon the condition of France 
at this time. 

= C. S. P. For., No. 120, anno 1575. Even before leaving Poland Henry III 
had anxiously written to Elizabeth urging the good offices of his ambassador in 
England, De la Mothe-Fenelon (see the letter in Appendix XXXV). The articles 
of peace agreed to during the life of King Charles provided that in the event of the 
death of one of the contracting parties, that party's successor should be allowed 
the space of one year to accept or refuse the conditions of peace, the other party 
being bound by the articles to continue in friendship in the event of the former 
accepting these articles; the Queen now insisted that, when these articles were first 
agreed to, the French King was at peace with all his vassals and had by the Edict 
of January conceded to the Huguenots the free exercise of their religion, and there- 
fore at the present time he was bound to observe all that had been promised (C. 5. P. 
Ven., No. 624, April 24, 1575). 

3 Correspondance de Philippe II, III, 209 and note. 

4 Ihid., 271. 5 Ihid., 333. ^ Ibid., 348. 



504 * THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

" The French and the EngHsh are in correspondence, and both are 
inspired by the same spirit of hostihty against the Cathohc rehgion 
and against your majesty, as the sole protector thereof."^ 

The arrest of a secretary of Montmorency at Boulogne in March, 
as he arrived from England, and who admitted he was going to 
find Damyille,^ coupled with the absence of the prince of Condd 
and Charles de Meru, the youngest Montmorency, in Germany, 
so disquieted the King that early in June Schomberg was dispatched 
across the Rhine to discover what Conde was doing; if he found 
that levies of cavalry were being made for service in France, he 
was instructed to enroll 8,000 soldiers for the service of the King. 

Schomberg proved a good agent, for he shortly afterward 
wrote that he believed a secret engagement existed between Queen 
Elizabeth, some of the German princes, and the enemies of the 
French King at home; and that Conde, having expended 30,000 
crowns, had raised 8,000 cavalry which might be expected to arrive 
at the frontier by the middle of August, although it was given out, 
and believed by some, that these reiters were intended for service 
in the Netherlands.^ On the strength of these suspicions, espe- 

1 Correspondance de Philippe II, III, 319, 320. 

2 C. S. P. Ven., No. 622, March 22, 1575. In Arch, nat., K. 1537, No. 22, 
is the report of a Spanish spy, written from Calais on March 18, 1575, which con- 
firms the suspicion of EngUsh tampering in France. Printed in Appendix XXXVI. 

3 Schomberg's observations were absolutely just, for on July 23, 1575, at 
Heidelberg, an instrument was signed by Charles Frederick, the elector palatine, 
Henry, prince of Conde, and Charles de Montmorency, in which the count palatine 
acknowledged the receipt from the English Queen of 50,000 "crowns of the sun, 
each crown being of the value of six English shillings sterling," which amount 
was transferred to "Henri de Bourbon, prince de Conde, chief of those of the 
religion in France, as well as of those Catholics with them associated" (i. e., 
the Politiques). Elizabeth's name was to be shielded throughout, the elector 
assuming entire liability for repayment which was to be made "before the army 
now levied in Germany for service in France shall depart to France" (see C. S. P. 
For., No. 254, "The obligation and quittance of the prince of Conde," July 23, 
1575, Heidelberg; cf. ibid., Ven., 627; July 12, 1575, the guess of the Venetian 
ambassador in France). Cf. ibid., No. 633, September 7, 1575. The Venetian 
ambassador seems to have thought that trouble in Ireland would prevent England 
from advancing any more to the Huguenots (ibid.. No. 631, August 9, 1575). The 
harvest of 1575 was generally good. But no invading arm}' would enter France 
before the grain was cut and stacked (cf. ibid.). 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 505 

cially when the duke of Guise sent word in the first week of Septem- 
ber that 2,500 reiters had crossed the Rhine, the English ambassa- 
dor. Dr. Dale, who hitherto had lodged in the Faubourg St. Ger- 
main, was advised to remove into the city, ostensibly for his greater 
security, but really to prevent him from receiving unknown per- 
sons secretly at night, as was possible where he resided. ' 

At this juncture, when everything was tense and everybody 
was on edge, the duke of Alenfon managed to make his escape 
from the court (September 15). While not actually confined, like 
the duke of Montmorency, he and Henry of Navarre had both 
been kept under continuous surveillance for months and various 
efforts made by them to get away had failed. Dismay prevailed 
at court when the escape was known. The King was " as a man 
out of courage," and betook himself to extravagant religious dem- 
onstration, as before, when at Avignon, "going from church, as 
though deserted by all his people."^ He knew that his brother's 
presence would draw many of the gentry, who were yet hesitating, 
to the ranks of the Politiques.^ He had no means to levy an army, 
nor the resources to sustain it. 

In this crisis Catherine de Medici kept the clearest head of all 
at the court. While she sought to wheedle the runaway prince 
with smooth words, going as far as Dreux to meet him, detach- 
ments were ordered out from Rouen, Orleans, and Chartres to 
surround him. But Alenfon was not to be trapped and rode swiftly 

iC. 5. P. Ven., No. 634, September 11, 1575. 

2 Ibid., For., No. 388, October 3, 1575; L'Estoile, anno 1575; see the inter- 
esting details of Henry Ill's curious fits of contrition in Fremy, "Henri III, peni- 
tent; etude sur les rapports de ce prince avec diverses confreries et communantes 
parisiennes," Bull, du Com. d'hist. et d'archeol. du diocese de Paris, 1885. 

3 Claude Haton, II, 780; Walsingham to Burghley, State Papers, Foreign, 
Elizabeth, CV, No. 51, printed in Appendix XXXVII. From Dreux the duke 
issued a manifesto, September 17, 1575, in which he explained his conduct 
and complained of the undue taxation and the imposition which the people were 
suffering in the King's name, declaring that he would take under his protection 
all the French of the two religions, and demanding the call of the Estates-General 
for redress of grievances (Claude Haton, II, 781 and note). Alenjon styled him- 
self " Gouverneur-general pour le roy et protecteur de la liberte et bien publique 
de France" (C. 5. P. For., No. 365, September, 1575). 



5o6 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

off toward the Loire in the hope of falhng in with La Noue or 
the viscount of Turenne. At the same time the duke of Guise 
was ordered to make a vigorous resistance against the coming of 
Conde's reiters. But even his army was in a bad state on account 
of the defection of officers and men, who had gone over to Alenjon, 
so that new troops had to be sent him.^ Almost all the soldiery 
in the service of the King was withdrawn from Dauphine and 
Languedoc and concentrated in Burgundy and Champagne.^ 
Much depended upon the result of the coming battle with the 
reiters. If the King's troops were beaten, Paris would be in a 
serious strait between the King's enemies. Already, in conse- 
quence of the withdrawal of troops, all Auvergne, Bourbonnais, 
Nivernais, Gatinais, and the Beauce were in arms, and the gentle- 
men of these regions had gone over to the duke of Alenf on. Only 
the vigilance of the garrisons at Orleans and Tours, Moulins and 
Nevers, enabled the crown to maintain the line of the Loire river. 
The reiters attempted to evade Guise and find another way 
of entrance into France, so that the duke left his artillery in Lor- 
raine and by forced marches went to Sedan, with the intention of 
giving battle there. But the reiters, about 2,500, under Thore, 
avoided an engagement and maneuvered to join a Protestant force 
of 2,000 Picards, and Guise fell back on Rheims in order to hold 
the crossing of the Aisne, meantime asking the King for reinforce- 
ments which were so slow in coming that the duke was compelled 
to retire to the Marne. On October 9 he established his head- 
quarters between Chateau-Thierry and Epernay, near Port-a- 
Pinson. The encounter took place near Fismes, on the Marne, 
above Dormans, on October 10. Not more than fifty were killed 
on either side and the combat did not deter the reiters from con- 
tinuing their course and crossing the Seine near Nogent-sur- Seine, 
which they were able to do on account of low water. Their chief 
loss was of two or three cornets of reiters whom Guise bribed to 

1 Claude Haton, II, 784, 785. 

2 Paris furnished the King 4,000 soldiers at its own expense. The new troops 
were lodged in the faubourgs of St. Germain, St. Marceau, and Notre-Dame des 
Champs {ibid., 787). 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 507 

desert. De Thore owed his easy escape, however, to the serious 
wound which the duke of Guise sustained. For a bullet struck 
him in the side of the face, tearing his ear clear away and so man- 
ghng the cheek that he was fearfully scarred for the rest of his life 
and always wore a velvet mask.' 

The insignificance of the victory of the duke, however, did not 
deter the King from proclaiming a solemn procession and Te Deum 
in honor of the day. The "victory" also was made the justifica- 
tion of a new tax. On October 12, 1575, by command of the King, 
the burgesses of Paris assembled in the grand room of the Hotel- 
de-Ville where the provost of the merchants, Charron, made known 
a new demand of the King for aid in the form of a capita- 
tion tax upon the burgesses of the city and other places in the 
prevdte of Paris for the payment of 3,000 Swiss, making half of 
the 6,000 which the King required for defense of the realm, in 
addition to the sum of 15,000 francs expected for each of the ensu- 
ing months. 

Once again were the people of Champagne made the victims 
of the spoiler. All the horses of the poor laborers whom the reiters 
encountered on the road were forcibly seized, as was also the case 
in the hostelries where they lodged. A single parish lost thirty 
horses. The only payment the poor peasantry got was to be 
beaten for their protests. 

For the space of three or four days one might see along the roads and in the 
villages soldiers all of the time, making for the crossing of the Seine at La 
Motte de Tilly. Two troopers rode one horse and their presence was hard 
upon the merchants and the priests, whom they met in the way. The smaller 
merchants were despoiled of their property, and those known to be wealthy 
had their riches extorted from them by force, or else were held prisoner until 
ransomed. To make matters worse, in the wake of the army came a rabble 
of looters and plunderers, mostly French.^ 

It was obvious that as long as the reiters were in the field, the 
King could send no force against his brother. He blamed the 

I Claude Haton, II, 788-89; D'Aubigne, Book VII, chap. xix. From this cir- 
cumstance the duke was often called Le Balafre. (C. 5. P. For., No. 450, Novem- 
ber 10, 1575.) 

- Claude Haton, II, 797. 



5o8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

queen mother for everything that had happened, especially for 
the escape of Alenjon, and Catherine, by way of reply, is said to 
have sent him a copy of Commines to read with the advice to emu- 
late the policy of his crafty predecessor. But as a contemporary 
scornfully observed, Henry of Valois was not Louis XI. What 
could be expected from a King who spent his time "going from 
abbey to abbey and devising with women." '^ In sorrow and 
anxiety, sustained by the dukes of Montmorency and Montpensier 
and the fine old marshal Cosse, Catherine made earnest efforts 
to negotiate a truce with the duke of Alenjon. 

Prefacing his demands by the caution that he could not nego- 
tiate finally without Conde or Damville, Alenfon demanded sur- 
render of Pont-de-Ce on the Loire, besides La Charite, Bourges, 
Angouleme, Niort, Saumur, and Angers for the Huguenots; and 
Mezieres in Champagne, Langres in Burgundy, or La F^re in 
Picardy for the prince of Conde;'' a large settlement for himself; 
a promise that the States- General should be convened for the 
Politiques; the crown to pay 200,000 crowns to the Protestant 
reiters; the exercise of Calvinist worship in as ample terms as 
obtained in 1570 (till more fully provided for in the ultimate articles 
of peace); the revolted provinces to remain in arms, except in 
the case of mercenaries, it being understood that no acts of hostility 
be done and commerce and trade to be free during the interim. 
The King's council, when these sweeping terms were laid before 
it, advised the King to yield, seeing no way out on account of lack 
of means to carry on the war. But Henry III was furious and 
threw the articles in the fire. In defiance of the advice of his 
friends, who told him to employ what few funds he had in corrupt- 
ing the reiters with Conde, he sent 30,000 crowns more to Germany 
to purchase assistance. 

In this strait, money came suddenly, as from heaven. The 

1 C. S. p. For., No. 422, October 29, 1575. The King called these pilgrimages 
"nouaines" (cf. ibid., No. 506, Dr. Dale to Lord Burghley, December 20, 1575). 

2 Protestant worship was provisionally authorized in the towns held by the 
confederates. Angouleme and Bourges refused to open their gates to Alenjon and 
so he was offered Cognac and St. Jean-d'Angely instead. The prince of Conde 
was refused admittance to Mezieres (Claude Haton, II, 805, note). 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 509 

papal nuncio proffered 100,000 crowns at once and promised 
200,000 more, while the Venetian government, in memory of his 
visit there in the year previous, made him a gift of his jewels that 
were in pawn. Finally, to crown the King's jubilation at this 
sudden turn of events, word came from Germany that the reiters 
hired by Schomberg and Bassompierre were coming ''and would 
not be stayed by the truce." Henry III at once broke off negotia- 
tions. The hope was to sever Alenfon from the prince of Conde 
and then, preferably by bribery, by war if necessary, overcome 
the latter, for Schomberg persuaded the King that this course was 
practicable. To this end commissioners were sent abroad to 
levy new taxes.' Great ingenuity was shown in the devising 
of new forms of taxation. In June, 1575, two edicts had been 
issued, one requiring the fixing of new seals to bolts of woolen 
cloth and the establishment of a greffier des tallies in each parish;^ 
the other creating the office of four arpenteurs (land commissioners) 
in each jurisdiction of the realm. The number of notaries was 
also augmented.3 In December the King made a pretext of the 
coming of the reiters to demand a new subsidy from the pHant and 
obedient people of France, under cover of raising men for the war. 
Of the Parisians he demanded the sum of 200,000 livres, to pay 
three thousand Swiss. Another pretext was the repair of the bridge 
at Charenton, which the Huguenots had broken in 1567.4 These 
taxes fell all the more heavily because in addition to the ruin of 
the country by war, the crops were short throughout the land on 
account of the dry summer. "The rivers everywhere were so 
low that in many places one could wade them. Every morning 
the sun rose and every evening it set red and inflamed. "^ 

' For details as to this levy, see Claude Haton, II, 804. This tax was laid upon 
the clergy, as well as others, and called forth a protest from the former, who pleaded 
an edict issued by Henry III at Avignon shortly after his return from Poland, for- 
bidding the governors to enforce the payment of tallies, munitions, etc., upon the 
clergy. 

2 Fontanon, IV, 840. 

3 Claude Haton, II, 820. 

4 Paris remonstrated against this ibid., 828 and note i). 
s Ibid., 817; L'Estoile, I, 46. 



5ip THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

In the meantime, fear prevailed in Paris lest the forces of Dam- 
ville and the viscount of Turenne would effect a junction with 
those of the duke of Alenfon and the united body march upon 
Paris, and garrisons were hastily put in Montereau, Corbeil, 
Charenton, St, Cloud, and St. Denis. The old trenches on both 
sides of the river were repaired and platforms erected in the fields 
around the city. Montmartre especially was fortified. The 
townspeople of the capital as well as villagers from the outside 
w^ere impressed into the work with picks, shovels, and baskets. 
Mills were erected within the city, and the city was provisioned. 
The King issued an edict ordering the peasantry within thirty 
leagues around the capital to thrash their grain and to store it in 
fortified towns known to be faithful to the crown, unless they were 
dwelling within nine leagues of Paris, in which case the grain was 
to be brought into the city. All the passages of the Loire were 
guarded. The result of all this was a reign of terror in the Ile-de- 
France. The soldiery indulged in all sorts of brigandage, so that 
in sheer desperation the villagers sometimes fired their towns. 
Provisions were commandeered without recompense. To such 
outrages were the poor people subjected that the inhabitants of 
one town, Jogny, begged the commander to have mercy upon 
them. But instead of so doing, Puygaillard loaded the little depu- 
tation with reproaches and had them beaten by the soldiers in the 
presence of all.^ 

With the memory of the elder prince of Conde's presence before 
the walls of Paris, and the battle of St. Denis, where the constable 
Montmorency was killed, the Parisians were willing to labor in 
the trenches for the safety of Paris. But they were not willing to 
be taxed further. In a remarkable remonstrance, joined in by 
the clergy, the Parlement, the Chambre des Comptes, the Cour des 
Aides, the provost of Paris, and the bourgeois and citizens of every 
quarter of the city, protest was made against the extortion of 200,- 
000 livres, which Henry III proposed to raise in this hour of 
extremity. After reciting that civil discord had prevailed in France 
since 1560, and that during the space of fifteen years the crown 

I Claude Haton, II, 806-8. , 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES $11 

had obtained 36,000,000 francs from Paris and other towns, and 
60,000,000 from the clergy, besides other gifts and subsidies, with 
httle progress to show either in pohtics or rehgion, the memorial 
proceeded to point out some of the causes of this universal corrup- 
tion in scathing terms: 

Simony is openly permitted. Benefices are held by married gentlewomen 
who employ the revenues far differently to the intention of the founders. The 
people are left without religious instruction and thus stray from the true 
religion. There is but little justice to be obtained through the venality of the 
tribunals, causing their neighbors to hold them in abomination. The number 
of those holding office is very great and part of them notoriously incapable and 
the rest poor, being thereby prone to evil actions. Justice is further impeded 
by the impunity with which murder is committed. Great cruelties and bar- 
barities are committed by the foot soldiers and by the gendarmerie, which does 
not now consist of gentlemen but of persons of vile condition. Not only by 
these, but by the soldiers of his guard, is pillage made on the houses of his 
people, ecclesiastical holdings, and hospitals even in Paris itself, so that the 
poor cannot obtain common necessaries.^ 

During these weeks Montmorency had earnestly labored in favor 
of peace, pleading, arguing, expostulating both with his own younger 
brothers and Alenfon. He was as earnestly supported by Cather- 
ine de Medici, now converted to a peace policy by the force of 
events,^ but both were continually thwarted either by the King's 
inconstancy or the machinations of the Guises. 

The illness of the queen mother — she suffered so much from 
sciatica that often she was unable to leave her chamber — and the 
frivolity of the King were a positive advantage to the Guises' policy. 

It will be remembered that the fortress of La Fere had been 
tentatively demanded of the King for the prince of Conde. Henry 
III had replied offering Doulens in Picardy instead of either La 
Fere or Peronne, which was later suggested, on the plea that he 
could not exact obedience from the inhabitants of the latter places. 
This demand for a border fortress near Flanders was made by 
the duke of Alenfon, in reality to further his own advantage in 

1 C. S. P. For., No. 535. 

2 Dr. Dale writes on February 28: "The Guises are nothing privy to the 
queen mother's doings and she likes as evi' of them." — C. S. P. For., No. 634, 
February 28, 1576. 



512 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

the Spanish Netherlands, and he took the method of having Conde 
take title to it as a means of concealing his purpose. 

The possible disposal of any border fortress in Picardy in such 
a way tremendously alarmed the king of Spain and the Guises 
who concerted to break the peace. ^ This plan is the true origin 
of the formation of the famous Holy League, which, although it 
assumed organized form only after the peace of Bergerac (Septem- 
ber 17, 1576), nevertheless existed in a tentative state this early, in 
the combined action of the dukes of Guise, Nemours, Mayenne, 
and Nevers, Biragues the chancellor, and other satellites of the 
house of Guise to prevent peace being made on such terms, and 
to break it in event of its being made.^ Twice this cabal called 
upon the King to give battle before all the forces of the opposition 
were united and twice the queen mother foiled their purpose by 
securing delay. On February 22 a violent scene took place be- 
tween her and the council^— Henry III was sick — in which Cather- 
ine branded those who said her son was a traitor as liars and 
declared that in spite of opposition "it shall be peace." 

The indifference of Henry III to the gravity of the situation and 
his supreme egotism are remarkable, yet thoroughly in keeping with 
his character. For hours together he would prate of poetry and 
philosophy — "de primis causis, de sensu et sensibili and such like 
questions" — ^with his favorites, in the retirement of a cabinet,while 
the realm was going to rack and ruin. The Venetian ambassador 
describes one of these symposiums with minute care in a dispatch 
of February 3, 1576. 

For the last few days [he says] his Majesty has taken his pleasure by 
retiring into a small apartment which has no window, and to his apartment 

1 C. S. P. i^or., N0.592, January 1576: "The King of Spain makes the King 
very great offers to break the peace." 

2 Dr. Dale to Sir Thomas Smith and Walsingham. All the fair promises of the 
delivery of Bourges and La Charite are like to come to nothing, as may appear by 
the enclosed letter of Monsieur to the Court of Parliament. There is a secret 
League between Guise, Nemours, Nevers, Maine, and others of that house, to- 
gether with the Chancellor, against all that would have any peace, and if it should 
be made, to begin a sharp war afresh (C. S. P. For., No. 583, anno 1576). From 
the first Languet was skeptical. He anticipated reaction (Epist. seer., I, Part 
II, 181, 205). 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 513 

his Majesty summons four or five youths of the city who follow the profession 
of poets and light literature, and to meet these people his Majesty invites the 
Duke of Nevers, the Grand Prior, Biragues, Monseigneur, De Soure, the 
queen of Navarre, his sister, Madame de Nevers, and the marshal de Retz, 
all of whom profess to delight in poetry. When they are thus assembled his 
Majesty orders one of these youths to speak in praise of one of the virtues, 
exalting it above all the others, and as soon as he has concluded his reasoning 
each person in turn argues against the proposal which has been made. His 
Majesty consumes many hours in this exercise, to the small satisfaction of the 
queen mother and everybody else, who would desire to see in times so ca- 
lamitous his Majesty attending to his urgent affairs, and not to amusements, 
which, however praiseworthy at other times, are now from the necessity of the 
case condemned by all, seeing that the King for this cause fails to be present 
at his council and there to discuss matters which are of the greatest importance 
and which having regard to his own position and that of his kingdom can 
easily be imagined to require attention.^ 

Strange as it may seem, the Guises' determination to continue 
the war comported with the wishes of some of their enemies — a 
circumstance which illustrates how singular was the alliance exist- 
ing between the Huguenots and the Politiques. The religious 
Huguenots already, in the middle of December, had remonstrated 

I M. Fremy has published a work in which he makes the bizarre claim that 
the origin of the Academie franjaise is to be at least remotely ascribed to Henry 
III {Les origines de V Academie Irangaise. U Academie des derniers Valois, 
Ij^0-lj8j, d'apres des documents nouveaux et inedits, 1888. There is a review 
of it in the English Hist. Review, III, 576). Some one has said that "all the 
Valois kings were either bad or mad." The aphorism would seem to apply to the 
character of Henry III, in both capacities. He was a mountebank, a roisterer, a 
dabbler in philosophy, a religious maniac, and a moral pervert. L'Estoile and 
Lippomano especially abound in allusions or accounts of him (e. g., Rel. ven., II, 
237-39). Compare this account with the earlier observations of Suriano, ibid., 
I, 409, and Davila, VII, 442. On the "mignons," Henry Ill's favorites, see 
L'Estoile, I, 142, 143. Henry Ill's very handwriting manifests his character: 
"Son ecriture semble tout d'abord reguliere, mais elle n'est pas formee, les lettres 
s'alignent sans s'unir, sans se rejoindre, certainement c'est une des ecritures les 
plus difficiles a dechiffrer .... C'est I'homme qui s'y revele I'indolent, I'effemine 
monarque qui de son lit ecrivait ces lignes a Villeroy: 'J 'ay eu le plaisir d'avoir veu 
vostre memoire tres bien faict comme tout ce qui sort de vostre boutique, mais il 
fault bien penser, car nous avons besoin de regarder de pres a nos affaires. Je 
seray sitost la que ce seroit peine perdue d'y repondre. Aussi bien suis-je au lit 
non malade, non pour poltronner, mais pour me retrouver frais comme la rose.' " — La 
Ferriere, Rapport de St. Petersbourg, 27. 



514 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

against the terms of peace proposed on the ground that the offers 
made did not promise as much of advantage or security as a con- 
tinuation of the war. It was argued that the truce would result 
in greater prejudice to them since the King would still be prepared 
for war and that if they now let the opportunity pass of establishing 
their fortune by the aid of the reiters, the result would bring calam-, 
ity to them.^ These narrow-minded dissidents looked with ill 
favor upon the politic course of the duke of Alen^on in avoiding 
the pillage of the towns he took, even of trusting to their loyalty 
and refraining from putting garrisons in them (some of these towns 
were Dreux, Romorantin, Thouars, and Loudan), and censured 
him for his pacific overtures to the Parlement of Paris. ^ Accord- 
ingly they hailed with delight the escape of Henry of Navarre 
(February 5, 1576), and his immediate abjuration^ of the Catholic 
faith which he had been forced to confess on St. Bartholomew's 
Day, and the renewed advance of the reiters into Burgundy and 
Auvergne and thence across the Loire into Bourbonnais, notwith- 
standing the fact that these mounted mercenaries "made a terrible 
spoil with fire and fagots" wherever they went. 

The reiters took the road toward Langres, crossed the Seine 
above Chatillon into Auxerre, making for the passage of the Loire 
River at La Charite, in order to effect a junction with the duke of 
Alenfon, who was in Berry, not far from Bourges. Champagne 
and Brie were filled with robbers in the wake of their advance, 
who, pretending that they were soldiers, plundered the townspeople 
and robbed wayfarers and travelers. There were regular bands 
of these freebooters, the members of which were paid regular wages 
by their captains. But the anarchy in the provinces did not 
compel the King to stop his dallying with philosophy, or his love 
for mad-cap pranks. He went off on a Shrovetide frolic in March, 
"riding about the town to cast eggs and such other disorders," 
leaving Mayenne to labor with those nobles who refused to be com- 

1 See the remonstrance in C. S. P. For., No. 505, December 19, 1575. 

2 Ibid., No. 584, January 9, 1576. 

3 For particulars see Dale's letter to Smith and Walsingham, ibid.. No. 605, 
February 6, 1576; Claude Haton, II, 829. 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 515 

manded "by a boy that never saw wars and a soldiery whose pay 
was a whole quarter in arrears."^ Mayenne made his headquarters 
at Moulins to prevent the reiters uniting with Alengon and the 
Huguenots of Poitou and Guyenne. It required all the address 
of the marshal Biron to restrain the young commander from throw- 
ing himself upon them, almost careless of the outcome, for defeat 
could have been little worse than the daily shrinkage of his army 
from desertion.^ 

Henry III at first had pretended to make light of the escape 
of his cousin. But the presence of Henry of Navarre in the iield 
soon had an important influence. It was the one thing needful 
to complete the organization of the Huguenots, many of whom 
looked upon the prince of Conde more as a Politique than as one 
of them. The harmonious working of the two parties opposed 
to the crown was now possible in greater degree than before. 
Henry of Navarre, the prince of Conde, the duke of Alenjon, and 
Damville united, were in a position to bring things to a focus. 
The actual territory controlled by Henry III at this time was Httle, 
if any, greater than the ancient Ile-de-France, Burgundy, and 
Champagne of his ancestors in the twelfth century. The Hugue- 
nots and Politiques so divided the realm among themselves that 
a map of the kingdom at this time reminds one of that of France 
in the feudal age. Henry of Navarre had made his headquarters 
at Saumur and thus was able easily to control Anjou; the allegiance 
of Guyenne, Beam, and Poitou was certain; the duke of Alenfon 
was in occupation of the "midlands" — Berry (except Bourges) 

1 C. S. P. For., Nos. 614, 625, 662, February 14-22, March 8, 1576. Mayenne, 
whose marquisate was erected into a duchy on January i, 1576, had succeeded his 
brother, the duke of Guise, as chief commander of the royal forces, and advanced 
toward Lorraine in order to prevent the reiters from joining the enemy. Henry 
III had sent Biron (he had been made a marshal in the June preceding — ibid.. 
No. 178, June 13, 1575) to them to persuade them not to enter France, representing 
that a truce had been concluded between the King and the duke of Alenfon. But 
the prince of Conde replied that if the duke had made his peace with the King, he, 
the prince, had not. Biron failed and La None was sent, who likewise was unsuc- 
cessful (Claude Haton, II, 824, 825). 

2 C. S. P. For., No. 662, Dale to Smith and Walsingham, March 8, 1576; 
Claude Haton, II, 832. 



5i6 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

and most of Bourbonnais and Nivernais. Young Coligny, who 
had succeeded Montbrun, was in Dauphine, and his fealty to the 
rehgion was unswerving; Damville and his heutenants controlled 
all Languedoc, Provence, and Auvergne; young Montgomery 
was in Lower Normandy where English assistance secretly helped 
him, while the prince of Conde, backed by the count palatine, 
endangered Picardy. 

The winning cards were all in the hands of the Huguenots and 
the Politiques. Without territory, without funds, with an unpaid 
army or hireling mercenaries only, the crown had no other recourse 
than to accept the situation and make peace unless Henry III 
and the queen mother stooped to the worse humiliation of receiv- 
ing the support of Philip II. And so it came to pass that while 
Paris daily expected to withstand a siege and the faubourgs and 
gates were so crowded with those living outside the walls and 
refugees from the environs "that a man could scarce enter the 
gates for the people, carriages, and cattle,"' Henry III signed 
the Act of Peace, May 2, 1576. 

The peace of 1576, sometimes called the Peace of Monsieur, 
from the duke of Alenfon's prominent part in its formation, was 
the most complete and elaborate charter yet given the Huguenots, 
embodying the wisdom that experience had taught. It is to be 
noticed that the settlement involved both toleration of the religion 
and political reform. The provisions of this composite peace may 
be classified under four heads, each of which was an essential ele- 
ment in the late opposition to the crown, viz: — the Huguenots, 
Henry of Navarre, the duke of Alenjon, the Politiques. 

The King granted to the Huguenots public exercise of the 
Calvinist religion throughout France except within two leagues 
of the court and four leagues of Paris. The Huguenots were 
declared eligible to all offices and dignities without discrimination 
on account of religion. As a security for the King's justice against 
possible abuse of these rights, the crown engaged to establish 
mixed parlements, half Catholic, half Protestant, at Poitiers, 
Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier, Grenoble, Aix, Dijon, Rheims, 

' C. S. p. For., No. 740, April 17, 1576. 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 517 

and Rouen, and a new chamber in the Parlement of Paris with 
two presidents and eighteen councilors, nine of them Cathohc, 
nine Protestant. Protestant advocates, procureurs-generaux and 
greffiers civil and criminal were to be connected with each of these 
mixed parlements. 

For further protection of the Huguenots, eight cautionary towns 
were to be ceded to them, to wit : Aigues-Mortes and Beaucaire 
in Languedoc; Perigueux and Le Mas de Verdun in Guyenne; 
La Rochelle in Poitou ; Yssoire in Auvergne ; Nions and Serres (cha- 
teau included) in Dauphine; Cennes "la grande tour et le circuit" 
in Provence. Additional demands were for general obhvion for 
all conduct and action by persons of either side; revocation of all 
decrees, judgments, and proclamations hitherto made; rehabili- 
tation of the memory of Admiral Coligny and restoration of their 
livings and honors to his children as well as in the cases of Mont- 
gomery, Montbrun, Bricquemault, and Cavagnies. No prose- 
cution was to be made with regard to the actions done at St. Ger- 
main-en-Laye and Bois de Vincennes. 

Two of these provisions were received with great dissatisfaction 
by the Huguenot deputies and when published were decried by 
many of the Protestants. The first of them was the prohibition 
of Protestant worship within the faubourgs of Paris, the act speci- 
fically declaring that St. Denis, St. Maur-des-Fosses, Pont-de- 
Charenton, Bourg-la-Reine and Port de Neuilly were within the 
prohibited confines. The other one which met with great objec- 
tion was that touching the security towns.' The deputies de- 
manded two towns in every government (there were fourteen gov- 
ernments) . But the King would yield only eight, these to be chosen 
from the towns already in possession of the Huguenots, a proviso 
which eliminated such important points as Niort, Angouleme, and 
Cognac. In the case of La Charite and Saumur, over which the 
longest discussion arose, a compromise was reached by giving them 

I Dr. Dale wrote truly to Lord Burghley saying that the Protestants had 
"gotten more without any stroke stricken than ever could be had before this time 
by all the wars, as appears by the note of the provinces that are to be under the 
government of them and their friends." — C. S. P. For., No. 777, May 11, 1576. 



5i8 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

to Alenfon in appanage. Long and acrimonious debate was 
made over this article, and at one stage the negotiations were so 
nearly broken off that Paris was notified to be prepared for a re- 
newal of the war. The crown's demands in this matter were really 
not unreasonable, for these eight towns were not included in the 
number given to Henry of Navarre or the prince of Conde, or in 
the appanage of the duke of Alenfon.' 

If the demands of the Huguenots wxre excessive, those of 
Henry of Navarre were still more sweeping. He not only aimed 
to live like a king in the future in his own country of Beam, but 
sought to commit the crown to the recovery of the kingdom of 
Navarre as well. All the past claims and grievances of his ances- 
try were embodied. He demanded: That the King of Navarre 
command in his government of Guyenne extending from Pilles 
to Bayonne, in such manner as his ancestors had done; that all 
captains and governors obey him as the governor and lieutenant- 
general of the King; that he have the providing of the necessary 
garrisons; that all his lands and seignories should recognize no 
other government than he appointed and that all towns and for- 
tresses belonging to him should be at once surrendered; that his 
right to his kingdom be preserved, and that his subjects should 
not be taxed for the services of the king of France, according to their 
ancient immunities; that all gentlemen being his servants, officers, 
or subjects should come and go and traffic freely through all France 
without molestation; that his officers and servants should enjoy 
such privileges as if they served the royal family of France; that 
he and his heirs should be discharged from the guarantee^ given 
by himself and his mother toward the purchases of ecclesiastical 
property, and for the payment of the reiters; that in view of the 
fact that the late king had granted 200,000 Hvres to his mother, 
the late queen of Navarre, for the celebration of the nuptials of 
himself and his queen, the King's sister, which has never been 
paid, and furthermore, because there was also yet due 120,000 
livres, arrears of the pension of the late king of Navarre, he prayed 
the King to deal with him as favorably as he could for payment; 

I La Popeliniere, III, 361. 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 519 

that if any offices or benefices fell vacant in seignories of the king 
of Navarre, he should have the nominating and presenting of such 
persons; that the King would preserve to him in his lands and 
seignories his privileges and accustomed sources of revenue, such 
as the droit de tahellionage and de sceaux. 

Having so far required everything that could conceivably be 
based upon things present, Henry endeavored to revive the ancient 
claims of his house in a startling fashion. The old feudal spirit 
of William of Aquitaine and Raymond of Toulouse seems to have 
been reincarnated in his person at this time. For Henry demanded 
further that he be recompensed for the 6,000 livres promised in 
time past, in virtue of the right that Fran^oise de Bretagne, wife 
of Aleyne, sieur d'Albret, father of John of Navarre, had had to 
the duchy of Brittany.'' But even this was not all, for Henry of 
Navarre finally made the demand that the pension of 46,000 livres 
which his grandfather had enjoyed in recompense for the loss of 
Navarre, from which his great grandfather had been expelled in 
1512 by Ferdinand of Aragon, be continued to him, and that the 
King of France should promise to help him to recover Navarre!^ 

In the nature of things, not a tithe of these demands could be 
granted by the crown, least of all the last. The massacre of St. 
Bartholomew had proved how perilous it was to try to drive Cath- 
olic France into a war with Spain, and France was less ready now 
than in 1570-72 to join battle with Phihp. Perforce Henry of 
Navarre had to be content with a restoration of things as they were 
on August 24, 1572.3 

The duke of Alenjon had created for him a position stronger 
than that of Henry of Navarre. As a prince of the blood and as 
a Politique he occupied middle ground between the crown and 
the Huguenots; in consequence, many of the places which neither 

1 This claim ran back to the reign of Charles VII; the original amount was 
25,000 livres. Louis XI altered it to 6,000 livres, plus the county of Gaure and the 
town of Fleurance, and this revised form was approved by Charles VIII in 1496 
(of. C. S. P. For., No. 672, §5; May 16, 1576). 

2 Henry of Navarre's memoir is given in extenso inibid., No. 671, May 15, 1576. 

3 La Popeliniere, III, 365. 



520 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of the chief principals was wilHng to resign were included in the 
grant to him. While technically all the territories so concerned 
were regarded as appanages,^ it is plain that a distinction may 
easily be made between the duchies of Alenfon, Maine, Anjou, 
Touraine, and La Roche — which had originally been given him 
as a prince of the blood — and places like Bourges, Moulins, Loches, 
Saumur, La Charite, Pont-de-Sel, Amiens, Moulans, and Mantes. 
These latter possessions were practically a class apart of security 
cities intrusted by compromise to the duke. This was particu- 
larly true of Saumur and La Charite, which insured the Protestants 
of passage across the lower and upper Loire, and so linked the 
South with Normandy on the North and the Palatinate and the 
German Protestant states to the east. Moreover, Moulins in 
Bourbonnais and Bourges in Berry assured the Protestants of 
position there, so that the whole left bank of the Loire from Au- 
vergne to Nantes was in their control. Mantes was meant to 
compensate the Huguenots in the vicinity of Paris for the loss of 
Charenton. 

The King yielded the government of Picardy again to the 
prince of Conde, but the matter of what town should be his created 
much heated argument. The prince himself at first stoutly con- 
tended for Boulogne, although he did not say that its convenience 
to England was the chief reason for his desire. But Henry III 
as stoutly refused. Then Amiens was suggested, and as compro- 
mise this city was given to the King's brother. Conde then de- 
manded Peronne. Although the King would have preferred 
Doulens or even St. Quentin to this concession, he yielded. The 
only other detail concerning the prince was the obligation to pay 
his and his father's debts in Germany, which the crown assumed. 

Damville did not come in for as much honor as his colleagues, 
but was far from being ignored. As the chief of the Politiques 
or "les catholiques associez," as they were defined in the interest 
of peace, Damville was and remained the leading man in Langue- 
doc. Aside from the retention of Damville in his government, 
promise was made the Politiques to summon the States- General 

I Maffert, Les apanages en France du XVI' ati XIX' siecle (1900). 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 521 

at Blois within six months for the reformation and reorganization 
of the administration.' 
■ It follows as a matter of course that the maintenance and pro- 
tection of the multitude of social and civil rights that made the 
web and woof of a civihzed society was guaranteed, such as the 
validity of Protestant marriage, land and property titles, freedom 
of education, commerce and trade, etc. 

A very delicate matter to adjust was the future relation of the 
electoral count palatine and the duke John Casimir, his son. A 
secret alliance had existed between the count palatine, England, 
and the prince of Conde since July, 1575. In November, Alenfon 
and the Politiques joined the alliance. One of the terms of that 
alliance was that Metz, Toul, and Verdun were to pass to Casimir 
as the price of his support and both Huguenots and PoHtiques — 
at least Alenfon — stood pledged to assist him in securing these 
Three Bishoprics. But it was manifestly impossible to expect 
the French crown to grant such a cession, nor is it probable, now 
that peace had come, that any in France looked with amiabihty 
upon this article of the contract of Heidelberg. It were too great 
a humihation to have this brilHant conquest of 1552 thus passively 
surrendered. Fortunately it was found possible to placate John 
Casimir with less distinguished sacrifices. His claims were pur- 
chased for an enormous sum of money — or at least the promise 
of it; no less than two million florins (three million francs), part 
to be paid in the coming June and the balance at the next two 
fairs at Frankfurt, in addition to which he received the whole 
seigneury of Chateau-Thierry^ — worth 20,000 francs per annum — 
a perpetual colonelcy of 4,000 horse, a company of 100 men-at-arms 
and 12 reitmeisters, all of which was confirmed by Henry Ill's 
declaration that he would " repute and esteem the count palatine 
and Duke Casimir as good neighbors." 

1 Articles du marechal de Dampville, gouverneur de Languedoc et des Etats 
du pays, presentes au Roi pour la decharge de la province, May 2, 1576. — Coll. 
Godefroy, XCIV, No. 21. 

2 Nusse, "La donation du duche de Chateau-Thierry par le due d'Alenfon 
a Jean Casimir, comte palatin du Rhin," Annales de la Societe hist, et archeol. de 
Chateau-Thierry, Vol. XI (1875), p. 61. 



522 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

The terms of the Peace of Monsieur' were exceedingly unpopular 
in Paris, whose citizens had been the heaviest contributors to the 
expenses of the war thus closed and who had made strenuous mili- 
tary preparations in defense of the capital, and the unpopularity of 
Henry III was not enhanced in the eyes of the Parisians by the 
King's repudiation of a part of the rentes, the incomes of which were 
the chief means of support with many. But when Charron, the pro- 
vost of the merchants, and the counselor Abot, at the head of a 
deputation of the foremost citizens of the capital protested against 
this high-handed action to the King's own face, Henry III with 
a sneer which carried with it a covert threat rejoined: "Hang a 
man and he tells no tales. "^ 

The camps of the duke of Alengon and the Protestants were 
broken up when the peace was published. The soldiery around La 
Rochelle and in Poitou, Anjou, and Berry, returned home, except 
some troops which were reserved until it was seen what Casimir 
and his reiters, who were near Langres, would do. These mau- 
rauders, with many French of Champagne and Brie, crossed the 
Yonne above Sens and arrived in Champagne between May lo 
and II and remained there for a week, living on the land. After 
having sojourned six or seven days between the Seine and the 
Vauluisant, on the i6th they moved on to a place between Troyes 
and the village of Mery-sur-Seine, where they remained for 
fifteen days to the distress of the people and absolutely destroyed 

1 The text of the Paix de Monsieur is in Isambert, XIV, 280. The sources for 
the history are many. The correspondence of Dale, the EngHsh ambassador in 
France, and the other EngUsh agents, Wilkes and Randolph, in C. S. P. For., 1876, 
for March, April, and May, is full and detailed (cf. D'Aubigne, Book VIII, chap, 
xxvii; De Thou, Book LXXII). La Popeliniere, III, 360 ff., gives the text of the 
treaty and the letters-patent of the King. The act was registered in Parlement on 
May 14, 1576, though signed by the King on May 2. 

2 Two days before this scene took place, the newly elected king of Poland 
Stephen Bathori, prince of Transylvania, had written informing the deposed Valois 
that he had assumed the Polish crown and desiring to know what Henry would 
have done with the household stuff he had left behind in Poland (C. S. P. For., 
No. 789, May 29, 1576). The Emperor had had numerous partisans, but refused 
to accept the condition that he fix his residence in Poland (Episl. seer., I, Part II, 
143)- 



HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES 523 

the little village of Marigny, which had but two persons left in it. 
In order to find food they foraged for miles. The peasantry turned 
their cattle loose or drove them, together with their possessions, 
into the fortified towns or chateaux. But the gentry were less safe 
than the peasantry even, for the latter had already been so despoiled 
that nothing was left to be taken. Out of this frightful state of 
affairs rose an organized resistance which is very interesting to 
observe, for the nobility and gentry of the region and the local 
peasantry, forgetting their class antagonism, made common cause 
together. Whenever these "vigilance committees" found them- 
selves to be stronger or happened upon stragglers from the main 
band, they threw themselves upon them; sometimes the victims 
were bound and cast alive in the river Aube or Seine. Between 
St. Loup-de-la-Fosse-Gelane and St. Martin-de-Bossenay, a group 
of ten or twelve reiters were thus set upon and only one escaped. 
But the vengeance their comrades meted out upon the offenders was 
terrible, for the troopers, numbering over a hundred horsemen, the 
next night burned all the villages round about. ' 

Not until September was this scourge removed from the land. 
By that time they were bought off and were conducted to the 
frontier by Bassompierre, the Alsatian gentleman in the King's 
service, who was well rewarded, as he deserved to be, for the accom- 
pHshment of the perilous task. But the hcensing of the regular 
troops immediately afterward still prolonged the agony of the 
province for a season.^ 

The Peace of Monsieur may fittingly be said to have terminated 
the period of the religious wars of France. The dominant issue 
of the succeeding years of conflict from 1576 to 1598 was not a 
rehgious, but a political one. Why permanent peace did not result 
it is not the work of this volume to narrate. Suffice to say that 
Spain and Spain's instrument, the Holy League, were to blame 
for the ensuing years of strife. 

The germ of the provincial Catholic leagues had been the 
desire, on the part of the Catholics of France, to resist the progress 

1 See the vivid details in Claude Haton, II, 834-40, 847, 851, 858. 

2 Ibid., 855-60. 



524 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of Calvinism. But in the hands of the French nobles these local 
leagues, controlled by the aristrocracy and welded into one mighty 
organization under the leadership of the duke of Guise, backed 
by Spanish gold, became a new league of the public weal, which, 
under the cloak of religion revived the feudal ambition of the 
French nobility to acquire power at the expense of the crown. 



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APPENDICES 



APPENDIX I 

[P. 49, n. 2] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. XIII, No. 456 
[The Cardinal of Lorraine and Duke of Guise to the Queen-Dowager of 

Scotland] 
Madame nous avons receu votre lettre par ce marinier present porteur 
et sceu par icelle lestat en quoy sont les affaires de dela [two pages in cipher]. 
Quant aux nouvelles de deca nous vouUons bien que vous sachez que 
depuis quinze ou vingt jours aucuns malheureux ont essaye icy demectre a fin 
une conjuration quilz avoient faicte pour tuer le Roy et ne nous y oublyoient 
[pas]^ tout cela fonde sur la religion dont aucuns des principaulx autheurs 
[ont este pris] et pugniz. Maiz tant plus nous allons avant et plus trouvons nous 
[que ceste conspiration] a longue queue ayant este bastie de longue main et 
appuyee par daucuns gr[andz qui se] sont trouvez bien trompez. Car nostre 
Seigneur a bien sceu defendre sa cause. S'est quasi le mesmes train qui ont 
prins voz Rebelles mais ilz voulloient commancer par le sang et lespee une 
autre fois vous en scaurez plus par le menu. Et pour fin de ceste lettre vous 
dirons madame que la compaignye faict Dieu mercy tresbonne chere et nous 
recommandons treshumblement a votre bonne grace, Priant Dieu ma dame vous 
donner en sante tresbonne et treslongue vye. De Marmoustre le ix° jour 
davril 1559. 

[Signed] Voz treshumbles et tresobeissans freres 

C. Carai (je Lorraine Francoys s^ de Lorraine. 
[Addressed] A la Royne 

Douairiere et regente Descosse. 
[Not endorsed] 

[Pencil note by editor] This is dated "more Gallicano" which commences 
the year at Easter. In 1560, Easter day fell on the 14 of April, 
consequently this letter dated on the 9* would appear to be, as 
it is dated, in 1559, being in fact 1560. 

No. 460 

[" A portion of the previous letter in French" (Calendar)] 

Estant que avecques plus de commodite et de moyen vous navez este et 

nestez secourue autant que nous voyons et jugeons trop bien quil seroit neces- 

saire ce que n'a pas este retardi par faulte de debvoir de soing et de diligence. 

I The words in brackets are faded and are supplied from No. 460. 

531 



532 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Car nous en avons cherche . . . .^ moyenes possibles et mesmes po'' essayer 
si ceste Royne dangleterre s . . . . addoucir et contenir par quelques remedes 
qui n'ont .... en son endroict, car apres avoir faict du couste du Roy tout 
. . . . de penser po'^ luy oster la jalousie et le soupcon qu'elle monstre au 
.... nous y avons employe le Roy catholicque tant que par son ambassadeur 
U luy .... quil ne souffriroit pas que elle donnast faveur aux rebelles .... 
aulcune chose au preiudice des droictz et authorite du Roy et de . . . . fiUe 
en Escosse. Depuis y a este envoye I'evesque de Valence conseillier au . . . . 
por luy rendre raison plus pertinente de I'intention du Roy, et quil ne ch . . . . 
I'obeissance de ses subiectz, resolu de retirer ses forces apres qu . . . . re- 
stablies au bon chemin, tout cela n'a de rien servi si elle n'a .... vous avez 
peu veoir par las articles qu'elle a f . . . . son Ambassadeur si honteux que 
nous croyons qu'elle sass .... nous n'en ferions rien et par ainsy elle pas- 
seroit oultre .... qui est de la guerre, dont nous veryons peu de moyen 
de . . . . si ce n'est po'' .... refuge 1' . . . . de Sieur de Glayon ques"" les 
. . . . y envoye po^ luy en parler des grosses contz ayant delibere si ... . 
obstinee de secourir le Roy de tout ce de luy qu'il vouldra et . . . . a accorde luy 
bailler gens et vaiss .... po"" remettre lobeissance .... dont il a este 
prins au mot. Et y a este envoye .... scavoir de la duchesse de Parme de 
quel nombre ou . . . . lad. dame charge expresse d'en accommoder le Roy 
de tout .... Cependant Madame nous ne perdons point le temps a faire 
ad ... . qui sera dun si bon nombre de vaisseaulx et si bien formy de gens 
et de toutes choses convenables que nous esperons que lad. Royne ne ses 
forces n'auront pas le moyen de les garder de vous secourir tout le p . . . . 
veryons est qu'elle ne peult estre preste que vers la fin de luillet. Mais si ferons 
nous tout ce que sera possible au monde po"" la mettre plustost a la voyle et ne 
espargner argent soing ni diligence comme nous nous asseurons que vous 
croyez bien. Et neantmoins cherchons nous tous aultres moyens de vous faire 
secourir de deniers soit de Flandres ou d'ailleurs et aussy ne craindrons nous 
en adventurer par petites pommes cependant et pour y commencer avons 
nous advise vous renvoyer .... eur dedans vng aultre petit vaisseau que 
luy avons faict equipper, ne luy .... espargne aussy argent car il a eu po^ 
estre venu icy et le hazard qu'il a douze centz francz que le Roy luy a donnes 
et trois centz escus po"" son retour. Avecq luy nous vous envoyons par ung 
clerc qui I'accompaigne la somme de mille livres et vingt cacques de pouldre 
menue grevee par ce que nous avons sceu par les lettres des sieurs de la Brosse 
et Doysell qui vous en avez besoing par dela ce sera pour attendre toutz jours 
mieulx estantz bien deliberez de . . . . perdre une seule occasion de vous 

secourir ainsy par le menu au danger perdre quelque chose. 

Cependant, Madame, il fauldra que de vostre coste vous faciez le mieulx 
.... pourrez et sur tout qu'il soit donne ordre a tenir les places bien .... 

' Ellipses indicate places where the MS is faded or creased so as to be illegible. 



APPENDICES 533 

rnies louant sa ma*^ bien fort la defensive sur la quelle les capitaines de dela 
sont d'advis que vous vous mettiez qui est ung moyen pour avoir la raison de la 
legerete et mal consyderee entreprise de lad. Royne dont nous esperons que 
le mal tombera a la fin sur elle et qui Dieu ne laissera impunye la faulte qu'elle 
faict. 

.... a este grande consolation au Roy et a toute ceste compaignie 
d'avoir entendu .... les souldatz de dela ayent si bonne volonte, cela nous 

faict .... Dieu qui tout yra mieulx qu'elle ne vouldroit car si led 

gneur Roy catholicque chemine en cecy de bon pied dont il nous asseure il est 
impossible que la chose ne tourne a sa confusion. 

Quant aux nouvelles de ca nous voulons bien que vous scachez que depuis 
XV ou vingt jo^'s aulcuns malheureux ont essaye icy de mettre a fin une con- 
juration quilz avoient faicte po^" tuer le Roy et ne nous y oublioient pas. Tout 
cela fonde sur religion dont aulcuns des principaulx autheurs ont este pris 
et punis. Mais tant plus nous allons avant et plus trouvons nous que ceste 
conspiration a longue queue ayant este bastie de longue main et appuyee par 
daulcuns grandz qui se sont trouvez bien trompez. Carnostre Seign"^ a bien 
sceu defendre sa cause. Ceste [quasi le mesmes]' train qui ont prins voz 
rebelles, mais ilz vouloient [commancer par le] sang et I'espee. Un autre foys 
vous en scaurez [plus par le menu] Et po'" fin de ceste lettre. 

[Noi signed] 
[Not addresssed] 

[Endorsed] 12 April, 1559'' (1560) Card. & D of Guise to the queen 
Dowager whereof another copy was sent to the Q. Ma^ the 3 of 
Aprill and was dated at Mayremoustier the viijth of the same. 

STATE PAPERS, SCOTLAND 

Elizabeth, Vol. Ill, No. 58. (Translation. The parts in italics have 

been deciphered.) 

[The cardinall 0} Lor: and duke of Guise to the Quene douag:\^ 

[April 29] 

Madame This bearar hath made verie good dlHgence to bring us yo^ 
lettres wherof we wer verie gladde, for that by the same we understoode yoi^ 
newes, and the rath"", for that we had receyvid none from yo^, sins the com- 
minge of Protestant the courrone. Sins which tyme the Quene oj England 
hath ever kept us in allarme to begynne the warre and to shew by all her deal- 
inges that she had sent to be doinge and sturringe the coles. We beleeve 

1 The words in brackets are faded and are supplied from No. 455. 2 The 
date is in Burghley's hand. 3 The MS is torn here. 

2 The reference to the original cipher is "State Papers, Scotland, Elizabeth, 
Vol. Ill, No. 82." (This is not signed addressed or endorsed. Pencil note by 
editor: "See April 29.") 



534 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

she hath forgotten nothinge, wherby she might thinke to draw anye fruict 
of her evell disposicion: yf she had fownde thinges in cace to go through wtli 
her businesse. Neverthelesse shee hath gyven us the fairest wordes of the 
world. Wherunto the Frenche King hath not so muche trustyd but that he 
hathe advertisid the king of Spaine of all that she hath doon who having well 
considered the mater, hath made answer that there is no cause why to dis- 
alow his entent specially to go through w* the maters on that side, and that to 
chastise the Rebelles he will gyve the King, as manye vessells, men, and vitailes, 
as he will, and so hath writen to the said queene, who knowing that she can 
hope for nothing of that, that she maketh a rekening of, begynnithe to use 
oth^ languaige, and causythe her ambassad^ to saye that that she hath done 
hath ben for none oth^ cause, but for the jalousye she hath of her Realme, and 
fearinge to be sodaynly taken unwares. So that it seemithe, that she repentethe 
to have gon so farre furth in the mater. And we beleeve that before theese 
lettres come to yo^ handes, yo^ shall have well perceyved, that her intentes ar 
waxed verye colde. And yf that which she hathe caused to be said by her 
Ambassador be true, yo'"^ shall have understand all the hole storie, by a man 
whome the S'^ de Sevre the kinges ambassad"" in Englande, hathe sent unto 
yo"^. Neverthelesse we have thought good to sende yo'*' backe againe this 
said bearar, by the waye of Flandres to advertise yo", that we thinke that your 
Rebelles wilbe farre from their rekeninge, yf they make their accompte of the 
said Ladyes protection. Or elles there is much dissimulation. 

And yet the King knowing after what sorte he must trust Englishemen, 
leavithe not of, to prepare xxiiij great ships to thintent (yf neede requyre, and 
that it do appeere, that the sayd I.adye doth contynue her evell disposicion) 
to gyue ordre wth the same and oth^ forces w^h he keepith in a readinesse, to 
souccour yo^ in such sorte, as he shall have the reason that he requyrethe, of 
thone and thoth^. 

Yn the meane tyme he hathe sent the busshoppe of Valence, counsello'' 
in the K^s pryvie counsell, towardes the Queene, to understande plainely her 
meaninge, and in cace that the same be good, then to come to yo"^ w^^^ good and 
large memorialles, to assaye to appease thinges on that side and to fynde the 
meanes to wynne tyme. 

The thing (Madame,) that greevithe us most, is, that the meanes is hindred 
and stopped, to souccoi^ yow w* money as ofte and as readily as we wold be 
glad to do, and as yo^ have neede of it. Which we durst not aventure, nor also 
o'^ brother Mons^ le Marquis for the evident danger that might happen. But 
yt cannot be longe before we see some waye open, and yow maye be sure 
(Madame) that we will not lose one quarter of an houre. 

Now (Madame) we must w^h yo^, lament the Evell, that the mater of 
religion maye bring into a Realme, which hath so gone to worke on this side, 
that w'l^in these xij or xv dayes, there is discouvered a conspiracy, made to kill 



APPENDICES 535 

us bothe. and then to take the King, and gyve him masters and gouvernours 
to instruct and bring him up in this wretched doctryne. For which pourpose 
there shuld assemble a great nombre of personnes heerabowtes who ar not 
wthout the comforte and favour of some great ones. And betwixt the sixth 
and xv*^ of this monethe, they shuld execute the same. So that w'^out the 
healpe of God and thintelligences w^h we have had from all partes of christen- 
dome, and also of some of the conspiratours, that have disclosed it, the matter 
had taken effect. But God hath provyded heerin for us. The mater being 
discouvered, and manye beinge prissoners, we hope that the same shall be 
bowlted out, and so the danger avoyded. Wherof, and how the same shall 
breake out, yo^ shalbe more particularly advertised heerafter, specially if the 
waye be freer, then hitherto it hath ben. Yn the meane tyme yo^ shall receyve 
(if yt please yo'^^) our humble commendacions prayeng God &c. Montignac 
is presently arryved upon the depeche, wherupon ordre shall be taken out of 

hande. 

[Not signed] 
[Not addressed] 

[This and other deciphered letters (Queen Dowager of Scotland to MM. 
d'Oysel and de la Brosse 29 [April] and "a private man's letter to d'Oysell" 
[29 April] 1*560) are written on the same sheets of paper, and are endorsed to- 
gether: "The interceptyd lettres discyphred," and endorsed in Burghley's 
hand: "B. 12. Martii. 20. Martii lettres deciphred from France to the Q. 
dowag."'] 

APPENDIX II 

[P. 98, n. i] 
ARCHIVES NATIONALES, 

K. 1,494, PIECE NO. 70 

[U Ambassadeur de France, Mr. de L Auhespine, eveque de Limoges, au 
Roi d'Espagne, Philippe II] 

Tolede, 4 avril 156 1 

[Suscription] Au Roy. 

[Au dos, alia manu] A Su Magestad. Del obispo de Limoges, a IIIF de 
Abril 1561. 

Sire, par ce que la Royne aura peu escrire a Vostre Majeste et Monsieur 
le Prince d'Evoly aussi, vous aurez entendu I'estat auquel les choses se re- 
trouvoient parmy les Estatz particuHers en France il y a vingt jours par la 
malice de quelques ungs mal sentans de la foy, lesquelz avoient faict une menee 
en certaines provinces afin que Ton feist tomber le gouvemement du royaume 

I The Editor's pencil note to the cipher (Scotland ii. 82) is "March 12," but 
the letter is calendared under [March 20]. 



536 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

en autre main que celuy de la Royne vostre mere, la sentans ferme et constante 
a n'endurer leurs erreurs et a les punir. Depuis est arrive I'un de mes gens 
avec deux pacquetz de Monsieur de Chantone, lesquelz j'ay faict mectre entre 
les mains de Sajas.^ M'advertissant ladicte dame par le mesme courrier que 
le Roy de Navarre s'est monstre si conforme en tout ce qu'elle a desire et 
peu approuvant la temerite de telles entreprinses, qu'il s'est accommode pour 
aussi recevoir quelque lieu et contentemant d'estre seul lieutenant general du 
Roy vostre bon frere en France soubz ladicte dame, afin que la multitude des 
autres seigneurs et gouverneurs de tout le royaume n'amenast point la confuzion 
qui y estoit, que Ton eust quelque adresse, et que, par ce moien aussi il feust 
plus honnore et respecte d'ung chascun sans aucune diminution de I'authorite 
de ladicte dame, laquelle, Sire, demeure chef de toutes choses, ayant les quatre 
secretaires d'Estat soubz elle, les pacquetz, finances, dons et autres graces 
avec la personne du Roy, et commande au conseil ainsi que de coustume, 
tellement que chacun espere, comme aussi faict Sa Majeste et ainsi qu'elle 
me commande vous dire, Sire, que desormes il y a certaine apparance de 
toute tranquilite et repos, car ce que dessus est passe, arreste et signe entre 
eulx et de leurs mains pour articles irrevocables, ayant pour ceste cause mande 
aux Estatz qu'ilz eussent a ne penser he disputter plus sur telz pointz, ains 
seulement en ce qui conceme le mesnaige du royaume, les reculans et remettans 
a s'assambler a la fin de I'este prochain. Et ce pendant, suivant I'instante 
requeste du peuple, le Roy vostre bon frere. Sire, partira de Fontainebleau 
incontinent apres ce Quasimodo pour se faire sacrer a Reims dedans le XX^ 
de May, et incontinent apres sus le mois de Juing faire son entree a Paris, 
d'autant que ces deux actes soUemnelz donnent plus d'authorite et contente- 
ment a tous nos subjectz, et que, cela faict, la Royne vostre mere pourra aussi, 
comme elle desire, plus soigneusement user de la main forte et justice en tout 
ce qui se presentera. Ce que dessus. Sire, amandera, s'il vous plaist, en vostre 
endroit I'opinion mauvaise que nous avions quant je parlay a Monsieur le 
prince d'Evoly de I'yssue de noz Estatz, lesquelz, par ce remede, sont frustrez 
de plus rien toucher ne negotier qui conceme le gouvernement. Me com- 
mandant tres expressement la Royne de remercier fort affectionneement 
Vostre Majeste des bons et roiddes offices desquelz Monsieur de Chantone 
a use pres d'elle pendant ces disputz, et asseurant Vostre Majeste que ce luy 
est obhgation telle qu'elle peult faire estat de son amour et affection autant 
que de sa propre mere, comme de son coste elle se confie tant en sa bonte et 
amitie que, si I'on eust voulu faire plus de tord a son honneur et preminance, 
elle eust use de ce que Dieu a mis. Sire, soubz vostre obeissance, comme 
de son meilleur amy, desirant que Vostre Majeste face en semblable estat de 
tout ce que sera en elle. Ceulx, Sire, qui avoient trame ce que dessus pen- 
soient remuer en nostre conseil et autres endroitz les hommes et honneurs a 

' Cayas, secretary to Philip II. 



APPENDICES 537 

leur guise; mais, par ce moien, ilz sont hors de leurs desseings. S'estant 
Monsieur le prince de Conde contente d'une declaration qu'on luy a donnee 
pour sa justification, a la charge qu'il peust, quant bon luy sembleroit, estre 
a la Court pres ladicte dame, ainsi qu'il y a este permis. Monsieur le con- 
nestable a, Sire, faict de bons et saiges of&ces en cet establissement, me charge- 
ant de vous presenter ses tres humbles recomandations, vous requerant, 
comme font Leurs Majestez, qu'il vous plaise en sa faveur confirmer en Flandres 
une abbaie de dames a I'une de ses parentes que les religieuses desirent fort 
depuis le decez de feu madame de Lallain, comme j'escris a Monsieur le conte 
d'Horne. Ce que, Sire, j'eusse de bouche este faire entendre a Vostre Majeste; 
mais la crainte que j'ay eu de le troubler parmy ces sainctz et devots jours 
m'excusera s'il luy plaist, et commandera i Monsieur le pricee d'Evoly qui 
cy est, de me faire donner quelque responce sur ceste lettre et sus une precedente 
que je vous escrivis il y a deux jours, afin que je puisse faire entendre a la 
Royne vostre bonne mere le contentement que recevrez de ce que dessus et 
vostre bon conseil. Quant mon courrier partit, Monsieur le conte d'Heu 
avoit desja este licencie du Roy et de la Royne mere, et suis attendant. Sire, 
Monsieur de Montrueil, lieutenant de Monsieur le prince de la Roche-sur- 
Yon, lequel arrivera icy dedans quatre ou cinq jours, venant devant pour preparer 
ce qu'il sera de besoing et pour aussi visiter la Royne, qui me faict estimer que 
ledict seigneur Conte ne sera pas en ceste ville que quatre ou cinq jours apres 
Quasimodo,^ dont noz dames ne sont pas contentes, la Royne pour le desir 
qu'elle a de reveoir Vostre Majeste plustost, et les autres pour leur interest 
particulier. 

Sire, je me recommande tres humblement a vostre bonne grace, priant le 
Createur vous donner entres bonne sante tres heureuse et longue vye. 

De Toledo, ce Illle d'avril 1561. 

Vostre tres humble serviteur 

S. DE l'Aubespine 
E[vesque] de Lymoges 



APPENDIX III 

[P. 153, n. i] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 179 

[Letter of the duke of Guise to the cardinal of Lorraine] 

[1562, June 25] 

Extraict de la lettre de Guyse escripte de sa main au cardinal. 

le vous envoye ce porteur en dilligence pour vous advertir que tout fut 
yer accorde. Et puis vous dire que le commancement est Ihonneur de Dieu 

I On the margin, in the writing of Philip II: "Es menester tener prevenido 
lo que se les ha de dar para este tiempo." 



538 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

service du Roy bien et repoz de ce royaume. Cedit porteur est sufiiisant et 
nauront noz chars cardinaulx que part ceste lettre comme aussi nostre mare- 
schal de Brissac qui congnoistra quil y en a qui sont bien loing de leurs desseins. 
Nostre mere et son frere ne jurent que par la foy quilz nous doibvent et quilz 
ne veullent plus de conseil que de ceulx que scavez qui vont le bon chemyn. 
Conclusion la Religion reformee en nous conduisant et tenant bon sen va a 
baz leaue et les amyraulx mal ce qui est de possible. Toutes noz forces nous 
demeurent entierement les leurs rompues les billeez rendues sans parler dedictz 
ne de preches et administracion des sacremens a leur mode. Ces bons seig- 
neurs croiront sil leur plaist cedit porteur de ce quil leur dira de la part de 
trois de leurs meilleurs amys et bayse la main. De Baugency ce xxv^ jour 
de luing 1562. 

[No signature] 
[No address] 

[Endorsed] Extraict dune lettre escripte de 
la main de m^ de Guyse au 
Cardinal de Lorraine deXXV^ 
luing 1562. 



APPENDIX IV 

[P-155, n. 2] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. XXXIX, No. 211, vj 

[Letter of the duke of Aimiale to Catherine de Medici] 

[1562, luly 9] 

Madame, je viens presentement de recevoyr la lettre quil vous a pleu 
mescripre touchant quelques marchandz anglois que lambassadeur de leur 
Royne vous a faict entendre avoyr este prys par les gens de guerre qui sont icy 
pres de moy pour le service du Roy et le vostre. Dont encores Madame je 
navois ouy parler, bien de quelques soldatz anglois qui furent pris y a assez 
long temps par le s^ Dallegre qui voulloient entrer a Rouen et lesquelz tost 
aprez je feiz renvoyer sinon quelques ungs qui se sont voluntairement mys 
a vostre service parmy noz bandes vous pourrant asseurer Madame, que tant 
sen fault que je permecte telles choses Que tout ce que jay en plus grande 
recommendation, est de les laisser librement et tons les autres estrangers qui 
sont icy mesmes voz subiectz de quelque religion quilz soient de traificquer 
et negotier comme ilz faisoient au paravant ses troubles, sachant trop bien de 
quelle consequence cella est pour vostre service. Et ne puis penser dou 
viendroit ceste prise si ce nest par ceulx mesmes de Rouen Dieppe et le Havre 
qui pillent et prennent indifferemment sur les ungs et les autres sans aucune 



APPENDICES 539 

exception. Toutesfois Madame, je mectray peyne de faire si bien rechercher 
parmy ses trouppes que sil y en a aucuns qui en ayent quelque chose je la feray 
delivrer et nen sera perdu ung seul denyer, ainsy que je lay faict entendre a 
ce present porteur que ledit ambassadeur ma envoye expres. 

Madame je prye Dieu vous avoyr en sante et donner tresbonne et longue 
vye. Au Mesnil devant 8*^ Catherine le ix^ jour de Juillet 1562. 
Vostre treshumble et tresobeissant 

serviteur et subiect 

Claude de Lorayne 
[No address] 

[Endorsed] 9 lulii 1562. 

The coppye of the duke d'aumalles 

letter to the Queue mother. 
[Enclosed in a letter from Throckmorton to the Queen, from Paris, 12 July, 
1562 {No. 211)] 



APPENDIX V 

[P. 177, n. 3] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 
Elizabeth, Vol. XLVI, No. 973 
[Letter of the prince of Conde to the earl of Warwick] 
[1562, December 14] 

Mons'^ le Conte. Attendant que la commodite se presente plus propre de 
vous pouvoir voir et diviser privement avecques vous envoiant maintenant 
ceste depesche en Angleterre je nay voulu oublier a vous ramentevoir le besoing 
que nous avons de joir en vostre secours, auquel jespere moiennant la grace 
de Dieu me joindre de brief pour par apres mectre quelque fin a tant de cala- 
mitez. Si Mons"" le Conte de Montgoumery est de retour avecques quelques 
forces, je serois bien dadvis se pour nous devancer, vous vous acheminissiez 
droict a Honnefieur pour plus faciliter le chemin et a lune et a laultre armee. 
Me recommandant sur ceste esperance a vostre bonne grace je supplieray 
le Createur vous donner Mons'" le Conte avecques sa tressaincte grace ce que 
plus desirez. Escript au camp de S' Amoul ce xiiij^ jour de Decembre 1562. 

Vostre plus afecsionne et parfayt amy 
LoYS de Bourbon 
[Addressed] A Mons^ 

Mons'^ le Conte de Quarruich. 
[Endorsed in Cecil's hand] 184 December. Prince of Cond. to the Er. 
of Warwyk. 



540 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

APPENDIX VI 

[P. 203, n. 2] 

STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC 

Elizabeth, Vol. XXIX, No. 50 
[Admiral Clinton to Cecil] 
S^ I am sure that yo^ are advertysed of the Appoyntement for New haven 
I would gladly understand the quenes mat<=s plesure for my farther Servyce. 
I lefte the Philipp and Mary the Lyon the Sakar and twoo gales w* viij victual- 
ers W3rth m^ Wynter in the roade of New haven to joyne w^h the shipps under 
his charge for the Dyspayche of the men and such thinges as is to be brought 
thense and lefte m^ Holstocke to assyste m"" Winter and I w* the Ehzabeth 
Jonas and the Victorie cam hither this evenyng and synse my comyng 
w^^ the advyse of m"" vycechamberlen I have dyspayched a suffycyent nomber 
of shippes that I founde presentely here to goo to New haven to fetch 
all thinges thense that is to be brought I cam to New haven yester day at 
one a cloke in the after none & departyd thense at twoo a clok this morning 
fyndyng my lord of Warwycke a shippborde redy to departe and at my fyrst 
coming Edward Horsey came to me w* monser de Lynerols from the 
Frenche King the queue and the constable as he sayd to- vysyt me w* offer 
of any thing that was their for my comoditie and sayd that the king desyryd 
me to com on land to hym and their w^^ he tould me the Appoyntement for 
New haven. I sayd to hym that the plage of dedly infexion had don for them 
that I thynke all the force of France could never a don for yf the mortalitie had 
not taken a way and consumynyd our Captens & Soldiors in so grete nombers 
they could never a prevailyd nor a proched so neare the towne yet ys it ap- 
parant vnto yo^ the noble coraige of the lorde lyevetenaunt and the valeantnes 
of his soldiors hath bene shewyd as moch as might be in men having fought 
agaynst an unsesable plage of pestylence & the whole force of France And 
as I doo reioyce that my contreymen hath so worthely behavyd them selfes 
so am I hartely sorry that yo^ chanse is to recover that towne, and so I desyryd 
hym to geve my humble thankes to the King the quene & the constable for 
their corteous mesaige and offer sent to me but I having charge by the quenes 
Ma'<^s comandement my mistres of thes shipps and nombers of men I can not 
departe from them and so we departyd and afore the comyng of Edward 
Horsey & the sayd frenshe man to me I not knowyng at that tyme where my 
L of Warwyk was sent William Drury w* a Trompet to New haven to speke 
wth my lord from me. And at his landing the Prynce of Condy & dyverse of 
the noble men found hym their and usyd hym verey curteosly and offeryd 
hym a horse to ryde to se the towne and a jentilman to attend on hym and 
declaryd to hym that my lord of Warwyk was gone to the See and had taken a 
shipp to departe. And this moche I thought mete to let yo^ understand 



APPENDICES 541 

prayng yo^ that I may know the quenes Ma'^s plesure for my dyspayche hense. 

Thus I take my leave. From Portesmowth the last of luly a° 1563. 

[Signed] Your assured friend to comand 

E. Clynton 
[Addressed] to the right honorable 

S-^ William Cicill Knight 

pryncipall Secretare 

to the quenes Maty. 

[Endorsed] xxxj. July 1563. 

to m^ Secretary from the 

L. admyrall. 

APPENDIX VII 

[P. 253, n. i] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. LXXVII, No. 846 

[Letter of the prince of Conde to his sister] 

[1565, Marchl 

The copy of the Prynce of Condes letter to his sister the Abbesse of Chelis.^ 

Ma Soeur, lennuy ou je suis de Hnjure que Ion a faict a Monsieur le Cardinal 

de Lorraine m'a mis au lict, comme vous dira vostre homme, de la fascherie 

que jay de veoir ainsy traicter les Princes. Qui me faict dire que lunion de 

noz maisons est plus que necessaire; comme il le peult bien congnoistre a ceste 

heure, et sil leust plustost faict, il leust tenu en peur et crainte ceulx qui nous 

doibvent obeissance et non par les armes eussent puissance de commande- 

ment. Surquoy jay faict a ce porteur entendre mon oppinion, et de la facon 

que mondict seigneur le Cardinal se doibt gouverner. Qui me gardera vous 

en faire plus longue lettre, hors mir que je veux confesser que si jeusse sceu 

ce qui cy est passe; jeusse veu Ihistoire pour empescher une telle honte et 

oultraige, qui est plus grand que je nay jamais ouy parler que Prince ayt eu. 

Je luy suis et seray, tel que je luy ay promis. Et si jeusse este aupres de luy, 

je luy eusse faict prevue de ma volunte, plus par effect que par paroUe. Je vous 

iray veoir quand le me manderez. Qui sera la fin apres avoir prie Dieu etc. 

[No signature] 
[No address] 

[Endorsed in Cecil's hand] March 1565. 

Copy^ of a letter from the Marischall 

Montmorency to the Duke 

of Montpensyar 

and a letter from the Prince of Conde 

to the Abbass of Cheliss. 
' This heading is in another hand. 
2 This copy is on the other side of the same sheet of paper. 



542 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



Ont de- 
feres 
avec luy 
les sieurs 
de Larride 
da Mire- 
poix at 
Negrepe- 
lice 

Le sieur de 
Marchas- 
setel est 
ung jeune 
gentil- 
homme 
dune 
maise de 
xii a XV. 
mille livres 
toumois 
de rente at 
a fiance 
nagueres 
la soeur de 
Monsieur 
de Crussol 



APPENDIX VIII 

[P. 259, n. i] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 
Elizabeth, Vol. CXI, No. 612 

[Montluc^s Treason] 

[1570, March 27] 

Le sieur de Montluc charge davoir intelhgence avec le Roy despaigne 
pour mettre en ses mains le pais de Guienne de quoy il reste accuse envers le 
Roy de France et la Royne sa mere par le sieur de Peres en Quercy et son filz 
le sieur de Marchassetel beau frere du sieur de Crussol qui ont envoye tout 
expres ung gentilhomme en court a ceste fin instruit de lettres et memoires 
par lesqueUes est porte que le seneschal de Quercy a dit ausdits sieurs de Peres 
et Marchassetel quil avoit este solicitte de faire mutiner la ville de Montaubain 
a fin de donner occasion audit de Montluc de la piller se plaignant que ses 
services nestoient recongneuz mais quil sen vengeroit et plusieurs autres 
propos sembles quilz veullent maintenir avoir este proferez par ledit de Mont- 
luc qui est aussi charge de sestre assemble lieu ung lieu nomme Granale distant 
quatre lieues de Tholose avec le cardinal Darmaignac et ung seigneur des- 
paigne pour conferer de cest affaire d aultre part que les prelats de Guyenne et 
Languedoc ont fait certaines assemblees et accorde entre eulx quelques levees 
de deniers et contribucions necessaires a cest entreprise et ont deputte secrette- 
ment levesque de Lodene vers le roy despaigne. 

Le seneschal de Quercy arrivant nagueres en court adverti de ce que 
dessus se veult purger a levesque de Vallence frere dudit sieur de Montluc 
disant ne scavoir que cestoit et quon le mettoit a tort en cest affaire. Toutesfoys 
ledit sieur de Vallence homme cohere de son naturel et passionne et laffaire 
de son frere aisne estant de telle consequence obtient du roy que lesdits sene- 
schal de Quercy et gentilhomme seroient ouis au conseil prive ou le seneschal 
a nye publicquement ce que dessus Neantmoings le bruit est quen particulier 
parlant a la royne luy aie dit beaucoup de grandes choses. Le gentil- 
homme apersevere monstrant sesdites lettres et memoires et quil estoit 
prest se rendre prisonnier ou submettre a telle autre peine pour soustenir son 
dire Comme aussi feroient ceulx qui lavoient envoye lesquelz viennent mainte- 
nant en court pour maintenir tout le contenu desdites memoires et proposer 
plusieurs aultres griefs contre ledit de Montluc tel est le bruit la royne apres 
avoir ouy lesdits seneschal et gentilhomme depesche ung nomme Duplessis 
varlet de chambre du roy vers ledit sieur de Montluc Pour entendre la veritte 
lequel de Montluc au lieu de se purger commenca a hault louer ses faicts 
et services et a se plaindre de la mescognoissance quen avoit le roy et dont 
pouvoit venir quon soubson de luy et mauvaise oppinion que sestoit tousjours 
honnestement acquicte des charges quon luy avoit donnees Bien aict confesse 



APPENDICES 543 

avoir parle a Granale avec le Cardinal Darmagnac mais que cestoit en passant 
chemin pour aller a Tholose et communicquer avec luy des affaires du roy ou Ion 
dit sestre trouve ou ung nomme Don Pierre de Navarre bastard dalbert evesque 
de Cominges. Ce quencores est trouve mauvais pour ce que lun et lautre 
nen ont rienescript au roy ny a la royne. Pourquoy sont mandez en court 
lesdits de Montluc et Marchassetel pour se representer devant leurs maiestez. 

Cest la cause pourquoy le sieur de Montluc a envoye cartel contre tous ses 
adversaires &c. disant que tous ceulx que vouldront maintenir quil aict intel- 
ligence avec le roy despaigne ont menty sauf et excepte les princes du sang 
et autres ses superieurs ausquelz il doit honneur et reverence quil est prest 
de les combatre a toutes sortes darmes en quoy il espere ne faire moings de 
devoir que il navoit que vingt ung ans &c. 

[No signature] 

[No address] 

[Endorsed] 27° Martii. Informacion 
contre Mons"" de Monluc. 



APPENDIX IX 

[P- 303> n. 2]. 
BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE 

FONDS FRANgAIS, Ms. NO. 3,197, F° 92, RECTO 

[The Cardinal's War] 
[2 juillet 1565] 
[Au dos] Coppie. De Mons^ de Salzede a Mons'' d'Auzances, du 11^ Juillet 

1565- 

Cause de I'empeschement faict a Monseigneur le Cardinal par le S'^ de 
Salcede. 

Monsieur, comme le diable qui ne cerche jamais que de mectre des choses 
en avant, il est survenu que, estant arrive Monseigneur le cardinal de Lorraine 
a Ramberviller, ses ofi&ciers m'ont diet aultre commandement de publier et 
attacher par touttes les villes et chastellenyes la protection et sauvegarde 
qu'il a reconvert de I'Empereur, le double de laquelle je vous envoye signe 
et collationne de son chancellyer. Et avec cela, je suis este adverty de bon 
lieu certainement qu'il veult et a despeche capitaines pour mettre es place 
lesquelles je conserve il y a environ dix ans aux despens du Roy et avec ses 
soldatz; et veoir a ceste heure ung remuement devant moy avec ceste saulve- 
garde et' une particularite que je sjay je ne suis delibere de le souffrir que 
premiere ment le Roy et la Royne ou vous (comme les representans) vous 
n'ayez bien pense le faict et la consequence que cela peult advenir^ pour 
I'advenir.^ Je vous asseure, Monsieur, que je suis bien mary qu'ayant tant 

I For est. ^ The original probably has amener. 



544 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

faict de services a Monseigneur le Cardinal et a sa maison, comme tout le 
monde sfayt bien, il' me contraigne pour mon honneur de thumber en sa malle 
grace. Et quant luy au aultre vouldront mectre quelques particularitez en 
avant, vous vous bien asseurer avec tous mes seigneurs et amys que je mouray 
et me coustera ma vye et mon bien que je ne serviray jamais aultre que a 
monseigneur et et roy, auquel je suis tant tenu. S'il vous plaist de me envoyer 
la coche de madame d'Auzances ^ par Florymont,^ je vous envoyeray a Metz 
en charge ma femme et enffans avec le peu de bien que j'ay en France, pour 
vous asseurer que je ne feray jamais chose qui ne soit pour le service du Roy, 
synon pour sa grandeur et authorite. Et, en ce pendant que j'aurai de voz 
nouvelles, j'entretiendray les choses en I'estat que j'ay delibere, avec la plus 
grande modeste que je pouray, sy je ne suis contrainct aultrement. Et sur ce, 
je me recommande de bien bon cuer a vostre bonne grace et prye Dieu 

Monsieur, vous donner tres heureuse et longue vye. 

De Vic,s ce 11^ jour de Juillet. Ainsy signe: 

P°. DE Salcede. 



APPENDIX X 

[P. 307, n. 7] 

STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC 

Elizabeth, Addenda, Vol. XIII, No. 71 
[George Poulet to Sir Hugh Poulet] 

[1567, April 22] 

It may pleas yo" to be advertysed that wheras (asvi^ell at my last being w* 
yowe, as by your severall letters) yov^re have geven me specyall charg for then- 
quyring of such currauntes as might be learned from the frenche partyes, 
wherin -having hetherto desysted, rather for want of convenient matter then of 
dew^ remembraunce, I have therefore thought yt my duty w* all convenyent 
speede to advertise yo" of soche newes, as I have benne presently enfourmed 
of by certeyne of this isle w'^^ came upon Satterday last from Normandy, vi^ho 
have declared that there w^as a greate rumo"" of vi^arres, and the newes so cer- 
tayne as a boy of myne being at Constaunces for the recovery of a grief w'^'^ 
he hath, was hydden by his host the space of one day, and so pryvely w'h 
dyvers others of this Isle conveyed over with all speede. Moreover I under- 
stand that there were taken up at Constaunces and theraboutes nf soldio''s 
wch ar now in garrisson at Graundville and that there ar viij-'^x soldio'"s in 
Shawsey and two greate shippes well appointed. Also that a servaunte of the 

I II is missing. 

2M. d'Auzances (or Ausances) was lieutenant of the king in the district of 
Messln. 

3 Places in Lorraine. 



APPENDICES 545 

frenche Kinges hath passed alongest the sea coastes of Normandy and hath 
taken the names of the principall masters and marryners in thos partes. The 
leke brute of warres and preparacion for the same ys in Bryttayne as I have 
learned by a barke of Lyme w'^^ came from S' Malos and aryved in this Isle 
upon Sonday last at night, who declareth that they were prevely admonished 
w* all speede to departe from thens, and that Mons"" Martigues governor of 
Bryttayne was appointed to com this present Tusday with a greate company 
in to the sayd towneof S' Malos where greate preparacion was made for the 
receyving of him and his retynewe. Thes ar the specialst and most credybel 
yntellygences w^h I have as yet lemed from thos partes, the presumpcions 
wherof as they ar very manyfest and dangeros so can they not be to myche 
credyted and dylligently prevented, wherefore I have w* all speede sent 
this bearer unto yo^^ w'^ thes my advertysementes whom I have charged not 
to slacke his duty in conveyaunce of the same, to thend that yo" being 
enfourmed of thes premysses may retume youre pleasure and advise for 
ower better procedinges in the same, as to yo"" discrete wysdom may seme 
most expedyent, beseching yo>i yt may be as briefly as ys possyble. And 
in this meane tyme I shall not fayle God willing to enforce and make redy 
the power of this castle and isle for the resisting of all daungers and sudden 
attemptes w* may be geven by the ennymy to the uttermost of ower power. 
Although the estate and furnyture of this castle ys not unknowen unto yo'^, 
yet have I thought good to send herew* enclosed a byll of suche necessaryes 
as ar specyally wanting in the same. There ys no other speciall matter worthy 
the certifyeng for this present from this yoi^ charge where all thinges remayne 
in thaccoustomed good and quyet estate thankes be to God, whom I beseche 
long to preserve yo". From lersey the xxij* of Aprill 1567. 

Yowr most obedyent Sonne 

George Poulet 
[Addressed] To his right wurshipfull father 

Sr Hugh Poulet Knight. 
[Endorsed] 22 April, 1567. 

M'' George Poulett to his father 

S"" Hugh Poulet from Jersey. 



APPENDIX XI 

[P. 326, n. 3] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 
Elizabeth, Vol. XCIV, No. 1,338 
[Sir Henry Norris to Queen Elizabeth] 
Yt may like yo"" Maiesty to be advertized .... Wr>'ttin at Paris this 
last of Septemb"^ 1567, in haste. 



546 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Yt is here reported for truthe that Amyans Abevill and Calleis are takin 

to the princes beholfe wherof I doubte not by y Ma'y is advertized or this. 

Also they have Lanne ^ Soyzon ^ Abevill Bollein 3 Ameins and so alonge the 

riuer of Sene which be the best appointid townes of Artillery in Fraunce. 

By yr highnes most humble and 

obedient subiect and servant 

Henry Norreys 
[Addressed] To the Quene's most excellent 

Maiesty: 

[Endorsed] 30 September 1567 

S^ H. Norreys to the 

Q. Maty. 



APPENDIX XII 

[P. 334, n. i] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. XCV, No. 1,457 
[Printed Pamphlet oj 6 pages] 
LETTRES DU ROY, 1 par lesquelles | il 

ENIOINT DE FAI | RE DILIGENTE PERQIHSITION 

& RE I CHERCHE DE TOUS LES GeNTILS-HOM | MES, 

TANT d'vN party que d'AUL I TRE, QUI SE SONT 

RETIREZ en LEURS I MAISONS DEPXnS LA 

BATAILLE DONN | EE PRES S. DeNYS. 

A. Paris, 

Par Rob. Estiene Imprimeur du Roy 

M. D. LXVII 

AUEC PRIUILEGE AUDICT SeIGNEUR 

De par le Roy. 

Nostre ame & | feal, Pource que | nous desirous sja | voir Sc entendre 
a I la verite quels Ge | ntils hommes de vo | stre s'y sont retirez depuis | la bataille 
demierement donnee ] pres S. Denys, tant ceulx qui e | stoyent en nostre armee, 
ou ail I leurs pour nostre service, que les | aultres qui ont suyvi le party du 
I Prince de Conde: | 

A ceste cause nous vous | mandons, & tres-expresseement en | joignons. 
Que incontinent la pre | sente receue, vous ayez a faire di | ligente perquisition 
& recherche | par tout vostredict ressort, de tous | lesdicts Gentils-hommes 
tant d'un | coste que d'aultre, qui se sont, ain | si que diet est, retirez en leurs 
mai I sons. Et ceulx que vous trouverez | estants de la Rehgion pretendue | 

I Laon. 2 Soissons. 3 Boulogne. 



APPENDICES 547 

reformee, lesquels se seront pre | sentez ou Greffe de vostre siege, & | faict 
les submissions portees par nostre Ordonnance & Declaration | sur ce, qui 
est de vivre paisible | ment en leurs maisons sans jamais ] ung se 
mouvoir a prendre les armes, ] sinon avec nostre expres comman ] dement & 
lesquels au demeurant | observeront en cela nostredicte | Ordonnance & 
Declaration, ne | faisants aucun monopole, ne cho | se qui tende a sedition: 
Vous don I nerez ordre & tiendrez la main | quils soyent maintenus en la 
joys j sance du contenu en icelle Ordonnance & Declaration, pour vivre | & 
demeurer doucement en leurs | dictes maisons, sans souffrir ne | permettre 
qu'il leur soit mesfaict | ne mesdict en corps ne en biens. | Et la oil il s'en 
trouveroit qui feis | sent autrement, vous leur interdi | rez ladicte joyssance, 
les faisant | punir & chastier selon que vous | Sfaurez le cas le requerir. 

Et au regard de ceulx desdicts | Gentils-hommes qui seront venus | en 
nostre armee, ou auront estd | employez ailleurs pour nostre ser | vice & en 
nostre obeissance, s'e | stans semblablement retirez en | leurs maisons apres la 
bataille, | vous les manderez venir par de | uers vous, ou bien les advertirez | 
par lettres, & leur remonstrerez de | nostre part le tout qu'ils font a no | stredict 
service & a leur honneur | & reputation, n'estant maintenant | heure de nous 
abandonner en ce | ste occasion: Les exhortant de ve | nir incontinent 
retrouver nostre | camp & armee, & les asseurant qu'il | ne se presentera 
paradventure ja ] mais occasion oil nos bons, fidel | les & affectionnez subiects 
puis I sent faire meilleure preuve de | leur bonne volonte & affection en | 
nostre service, que en ceste cy, 8i dont nous recevions plus de con | tentement, 
que nous sgaurons bien | recognoistre envers eulx. Et | au contraire vous 
leur ferez Sfa | voir que oultre la juste cause d'in | dignation, que nous aurons 
alen ] contre de ceulx qui y defauldront, | nous ferons proceder au saisisse | 
ment en nostre main de tous & | chascuns leurs fiefs & tenemens ] nobles, 
pour estre regis par Con | missaires. Mais sur tout ne fail | lez de nous 
envoyer incontinent | les noms & surnoms, qualitez & | demeurances de tous 
les dessus | diets Gentils-hommes de coste & 1 d'aultre retirez en leursdictes 
mai I sons. Et vous nous ferez service | tresaggreable. Donne a Paris le 
douziesme jour de Decembre, ] mil cinq cens soixante sept. 

[Signe] Charles 

[Et au dessoHs] Robertet 

[Et sur la superscription est es \ cript] 

A nostre ami & fealle le Prevost de \ Paris, ou son Lieutenant. 

Leves & publiees a son de trompe | & cry public par les carrefours de 

ce I ste ville de Paris, lieux & places ac | coustumez a faire cris & publications, | 

par moy Pasquier Rossignol sergent, cri ] eur jure pour le Roy es ville, Pre- 

voste I & Viconte de Paris, accompaigne de | Michel Noiret commis par le 

Roy pour | trompete esdicts lieux, & d'un aultre ] trompete, le dixseptieme 

iour de Decern | bre, I'an mil cinq cens soixante sept. 

Rossignol 



548 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

APPENDIX XIII 

[P. 352, n. 2] 

BIBLIOTECA BARBERINIANA 

Vatican Library, No. 5,269, Folio 63 
[Discorso sopra gli humori del Regno di Francia, di Mons. Nazaret] 
Quante uolte il Rfe Christianissimo ha ricerco Nostro Sigi^^ di danari 
contanti, 6 di permissioni di cauarne somme maggiori, et grossissime dal 
Clero di Francia, o di soccorso di gente Italiana, 6 di altro aiuto, che si potesse 
cauare da sua Beatitudine, tante n'h stato in somma compiaciuto, conciosia, 
che la bonta del Papa, et la prontezza, et uolonta grande, che Sua Santitk 
ha del continue hauuto d' impiegare ogni sua forza, et autorita a salute di 
quella Corona, et ad esterminatione degli Heretici gli ha fatto prestare piti 
fede alle promesse, che loro M'a, faceuano a parole del ben futuro che alle 
uere ragioni di coloro, i quali predicauano il Male, et la corruttione presente, 
et palpabile tale, secondo essi da mettere per perduto qualunque cosa si donaua 
6 porgeua per quel aiuto con il medesimo zelo ha proceduto sua Santita nell' 
aduertire al Re, alia Reina, et alii altri Ministri suoi fideli, et Catholici degl' 
inganni, et male opere di certi, i quali si uedeua chiaramente, come proponendo 
fallacie, et usando falsita et tradimenti, cercauano con sommo artificio di 
leuare 1' obedienza al Rh, et corrompere la giustitia, et Religione di quel Regno, 
come in gran parte e loro riuscito, cosi non ha mancato di mettere qualche 
uolta in consideratione qualche rimedio per troncare i disegni delli Ugonotti, 
parendoli, corns Papa et Padre commune, chs se gli appartenesse di ricordar 
quello tocca al bene de fideh, et come Vicario di Christo in Terra di doversi 
intromettere in cosa appartenente all' uffitio suo per quanto concerne il rifor- 
mare la Chiesa di Dio, cioe renderle in quel Paese la sua debita forma, et 
dignita essendousne il bisogno, 6 la necessita grandissima, ma in parte alcuna 
non e mai riuscito di far frutto, anzi quando le loro M'a. non hanno hauto per 
fine di ualersi d;gli aiuti; et autorita del Papa, manco hanno tenuto conto, 
ne pur mostro di curarsi di corrispondere con qusUa dimostratione di parole, 
che ci conuiene ad ubedienti fig" et deuoti a questa Santa Sede; Percioche 
all' altre cose, che I'hanno dechiarato, lo fece manifesto, et palpabile, quando 
dopo la battaglia ultima di Mocontor, essendo il tempo appunto proprio de 
uenire a dare castigo a chi lo meritaua, come ricordauano i Ministri di Nostro 
Sig'^e per parte sua, che era tempo di fare, et ne mostrauano il modo, fu risposto 
loro dalla Reina propria con parole assai espresse, come' il Re si trouaua in 
etk di autorita, et con forze, et prudenza di saper gouernare lo Stato suo, da 
se, senza hauere a pigliare consiglio, nh Legge da Principi esterni. Onde 
meritamente da quel tempo in qua e parso a Sua Santita di uolere andare un 
poco piu consideratamente, non giudicando che se gli conuenisse di doversi 
ingenire in cosa d'altri piii oltre di quelche fosse grato alii Padroni, sperando 



APPENDICES 549 

pure, che come V era affirmato, cosi asseueratamente I'eta del Rfe con il 
ualoroso animo suo, et con le prouisioni, che loroMta presumeuano di fare piu 
che a bastanza per trouarsi al sicuro in ogni accidente, potessero superare 
la peruersita de Ribaldi, et ogni altra difficulta. 

Hora che dalli intoUerabili Capitoli da questa ultima impia pace apparisce 
tutto il contrario, ueggendosi come restano del tutto oppressi i Cat^i et gli 
Ugonotti tanto soUeuati, che nonsi preuaglianoin qualche parte: ma che met- 
tano necessita, et in loro soggettione il Re medesimo. 

Non puo ne deue sua Beatitudine mancare di tutti quei Uffity, che si ap- 
partengonoalgradosuoper aprire la mente del Re con modo, che sia cauato 
dalle tenebre, oue altri cerca di tenerlo, et sia illuminato delle prouisioni, che 
Sua M'a puo porgere per la salute, et conseruatione dello Stato, et uita di tutti 
i'buoni, che senza pronto, et potente rimedio se ne andranno in perditione, 
non potendo mai reggersi quel Regno senza buona giustistia, et rehgione; 
le quali sono corrottissime con I'lntervento delli Heretici in esse, li quali 
Heretici non accade dubitare, che hanno sempre hauuta, et hanno tutavia 
piu che mai la principale mira loro fissa alia rouina del Re et uaglionsi ap- 
parentemente di quelle due cose, che sono generalissime per chiunque cerca 
di distruggere un Dominio, 6 una Monarchia, cioe la prima di mettere in 
diffidenza a chi lo regga quei Prencipi massimamente, che lo possono sostenere, 
et porgere consigli; et aiuti da conseruarsi il suo debito imperio, come si sa, 
che hanno tanto tempo procurato di conseguire pivi, et sopra ogni altra cosa 
li Ugonotti del Re di Spagna con dar ombra, et metter gelosia, che Sua M^^ 
CattS^ et suoi Ministri ancor d' auantaggio fussero sempre per procurare, 
non che desiderare la divisione della Francia; perche la bassezza del Rfe 
Christianissimo, redondaua a grandezza del 1' altro interpretando perpetu- 
amente, et le parole, et i fatti, che ueniuano da quella parte al peggior senso, 
il quale argomento, sebene in superficie hauesse del propabile in qualche parte, 
nondimeno la natura del Re CaXS° tanto inclinata al bene, et alia quiete, f^ 
conoscere a pieno il contrario, come dimostra pur troppo chiaramente I'oc- 
casione, che ha lassato passare, con il non havere con effetto animo di nuocere 
alia Francia per pensiero di accrescere se stesso; Ma e assai alii Ugonotti di 
hauere messo Zizania da ogni parte, tanto che I'uno non si fidi dell' altro, 
sicome hanno cerco, che gli riesca di consequire del Papa, sebene non e uenuto 
loro fatta, perche Sua Beat.'i^ per sua troppa bonta pospone ogni altra occasione, 
hauendo risguardo solo al seruitio di Dio, et al bene di quella Corona et del Re. 
L'altra seconda cosa h di mettere diuisione nel Popolo, che di do non 
accade produrne ragioni, ueggendosi pur troppo per gl' istessi capitoli dell' ac- 
cordo. E necessaria adunque inanzi ad ogni altra cosa di provare con buone 
ragioni, come la setta delli Ugonotti con li suoi capi, sono sforzati a tenere in 
perpetuo la persona del Re per inimica implacabile, perche oltre a quello che 
e detto di sopra I'hanno troppo grauemente offesa, nello Stato nell' honore, 



55° THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

et quanto ad essi nella uita sicome testifica quella giornata di Meos, nella 
quale fu forza a Sua Mta trottare sino a Parigi nel modo che e notorio. 

Molte altre congiure, et conspirationi fatte da essi contra la persona di 
Sua M'^ et tanti trattati, et ribellioni usate per occuparle le sue Terre, sono 
palesi, et n'appariscono i processi fatti per le scritture, che furono trovate a 
Sciantiglione di Coligni, et che offende non perdona, onde considerata la 
natura loro, non resta dubbio, che come consij di havere macchinato contra 
alia uita del Suo Sovrano Padrone, et offesolo nell' honore, et nello Stato tante 
uolte cosi abbomineuolmente, come enonsolo palese; ma prouato a chiunque 
lo uole sapere, non potranno in eterno essere fideli, ne obedienti Vassalli; anzi 
non staranno mai quieti se non per fraude, et con intentione d' ingannare Sua 
M'a quando uegghino le cose in termine, che li habbia da riuscire, et se gli 
mancara il modo con 1' Armi scoperte, et con congiurationi palesi, come per 
lo passato; perche la loro setta hauesse declinato, forse per il danno riceuuto 
nelle battaglie, che Dio benedetto ha fatto loro perdere, o perche dubitino di 
poter essere oppressi dal ualore, et uirtu, che uede essere nel Re e non solo 
uerisimile, ma chiara, et sicura cosa, che procureranno di aiutarsi per ogni 
uia etia indirettissima, et seguitaranno il lor costume solito, et pero non per- 
doneranno a ueleno, ne ad altra sorte di scelerata uiolenza, come la morte del 
Marescial di Bordiglione, quella di Monsigi^ di Ghisa, et infinite altre simili 
ci ammaestrano, perche conosceranno, come niuna uia e piii certa di assi- 
curarli ad ogni misfatto, et insieme da conseguire il fine del colorire i loro 
peruersi dissegni; onde si pub fare uera conseguenza, che niuna persona 
fidele al Re, et prudente possa, ne debba persuadere Sua M'^ a disarmare, 
b a fidarsi in alcun modo poco, ne molto delli ribelli di Christo, et suoi. 

He che intenda d'huer concordato con essi altrimenti, che con I'intentione, 
che hebbe gia il Re Luigi XI. il quale considerata I'unione de Grandi contra 
di se uolse rendersi facile di promettere ogni condittione, benche iniciua, che 
da ciascuno 1' era chiesta, ma dissipati che hebbe i capi della ribellione, come 
furono deposte 1' armi, incontinente gli tronco tutti, senza indugio, ne risguardo 
alcuno. Anzi ha da guardarsi Sua M'^- ben diligentemente da tutti coloro i 
quali con si gran carita gridano pacis bona, et abusando della clemenza, et 
benignita del Re, si sforzano d'ingannarlo, commendando questa pace partico- 
lare con le lode della pace in genere; perche con le sue proprie non lo potriano 
fare: Chi non sa che la pace per se stessa e buona? Ma chi non sa ancora 
che Sicary, i Venefici, gli Assassini gli Assassinatori, gli Incendiarij, i Sacrilegij, 
gli Heretici, et gli huomini senza fede, ne honore meritano punitione, et ester- 
minatione. Chi non sa similmente, che hauer preso per trattata la Roccella 
per forza Angolem, et tante, et tante altre Citta, et Terre in tutti i modi, che 
r hauere assediato il suo Re, che I'abbruciare le Chiese, dar il guasto alle 
Prouincie, et distruggere, et esterminare, o ribellare i PopoU e cattiva cosa, 
et peccato irremediabile. Ma che il liberarsi da si graue indignita, et op- 



APPENDICES 551 

pressioni, et die il cauar lo Stato suo, et suoi buoni Vassalli, et se stesso da 
tale calamita, et miserie, come e la uile, et abbietta seruitu di chiunque 
si troua sottoposto alle crudeli Tirannide, et rapina de' capi delli Ugonotti, 
non e esser seuero, et rigido, ma a fare il douere, il dritto, et quelche 
ricerca la Giustitia; Come puo il Re uolgere gli occhi pieni di quel 
generoso spirito che hanno mostro i suoi antecessori in tante et si grande 
Imprese, da i quali ha riceuuto il titolo di Christianissimo, acquistato 
d' essi per i loro meriti verso la Roccella, et tutto il Paese, che chiamano di 
conquista, et tolerare di uederselo tolto con i PopoH ribellati, et in tutto alienati 
dalla sua obedienza, et ReHgione con le Chiese antichissime, et si eccellenti, 
et nobili edifitij tutte demoUte, la qual cosa auuiene non solo ne Paesi doue 
hanno pensato d'annidarsi, ma da tutte le parti del Regno, douunque sono pas- 
sati con 1' armi, che se ne uederanno i uestigii per li secoli auuenire, nonche 
per li successori nostri, talmente hanno adoperato il ferro, et il foco contro 
la fede di Christo, et la giurisdittione, et I'autorita Regia. 

Si che quando per qualsiuogla mondana ragione pur uolesse Sua M^a 
scordarsi I'offese si graui fatte alia Corona, a se, et all' honore, et dignita sua, 
non puo, ne deue posponere quelle, che sono commesse contra Christo, et 
alia sua legge, et non puo mancare di giustitia alii suoi Popoli fideli, et Cat.*^' 
che chieggono pieta, et gridano uendetta, chiari di non douere, ne poter, ne 
uoler havere mai pace, ne triegua a modo alcuno, sapendo di non potersi mai 
fidare d'essi, come I'esperienza gli ha dimostro molte uolte a troppo loro gran 
costo. Pero quando uedessero di essere abbandonati, et derelitti dal Re, 
et dal Gouerno, piutosto che restare a descrittione di gente si scelerata per 
fuggire la rapacita, et enormissime crudelta loro saranno forzati di ricorrere 
ad ogni ultimo refugio. 

Si puo dunque proporre in consideratione al Re qual sia piu pietoso uffitio, 
quanto a Dio, et pivi glorioso quanto al mondo, hauer fatto un accordo con 
r inique, et intoUerabih condittioni, che si ueggano con Vassalli, et ribelli 
reintegrandoli ne beni, et dignita, gradi preminentie, uflfitij, et benefit! j, ceden- 
doli parte dello Stato proprio, con il lassar loro delle principali Fortezze del 
suo Regno in diverse Prouincie, pagandoli danari di nuouo, oltre all' assoluerli 
di quanto hanno rubbato alia Corona, et al Popolo, et quello che importa 
pill di tutto il resto, permetterli il Ubero esercitio delle loro Heresie, o 1' hauere 
liberato i suoi fideh soggetti, et se la Casa Sua, et il suo Regno, et la Chris- 
tianita, da si pestifera et perniciosa Canaglia, Bella usanza certo si potrebbe 
chiamare I'usurpare con la Tirannia, che s'hanno fatto gli Ugonotti, le Citta 
et gli Stati pertinenti alia Corona, saccheggiare et espilare tutte le Prouincie, 
doue si sono potuti cacciare con ogni sorte di tradimento, et quando non si 
ha havuto altro refugio, ricorrere alia pace, et al perdono per non restituire 
quello che si e rubbato, et occupato a forza, et Tirannicamente. Tollerassi, 
che uno, 6 pochi transfugi, infame, si facciano capi di una setta, et senza 



552 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

cagione, 6 ragione pur finta, 6 apparente; non che con autorita, et giusto 
titolo, sotto colore di uolersi fare riformatori de Preti diformati, et disobedient!, 
pigliano 1' armi contra il Re, lo minacciano, faccino le battaglie seco, lo mettino 
nelle necessita, doue Sua M'a, e stata, et si truoua tuttauia, et li diano le leggi 
piutosto, che castigare chi lo merita, et reintegrare la giustitia, et la Religione 
nel suo Dominio, senza le quali due oose mai si uisse, ne si potra uiuere retta- 
mente in alcun luogo. 

Anzi e troppo chiara cosa, come questo male non corretto: ma cosi tra- 
sandato andara augumentando si ogni giorno maggiormente di sorte, che si 
habbia da mutare Imperio, come si uede che desiderano, et procurano con 
ogni diligenza gli Ugonotti che segua. E adunque la pace, cosi fatta peri- 
colosa, et dannosa, come si e dimostro, sicome al punir li malfattori sara 
sempre trouato necessario, honesto, et utile. Bisogna hora poi considerare, 
posto, che si debba fare se il Re ha il modo da reintegrarsi nel suo prestino 
Stato, et autorita, et obedienza, et di cib forse si potrebbe uenire in certa 
cognitione col misurare qual sia piii il numero de Cat^i o quello degli Ugonotti, 
qual siano maggiori, et piil gagliarde le forze, et armi de ribelli, 6 quelle del 
Re, quale delle due parti habbia piii facile il modo da cauare gente forastiera, 
et sia meglio appoggiata d'amicitie de Prencipi Potentati, et de danari. 

Et in fine secondo tali propositioni fame la conseguentia, per due Ugonotti, 
che siano nel Regno, si ode calcolare, che si ha da contraporre piii di otto 
Cat." gli ribelli hanno perduto nelle battaglie oltre alia reputatione, et la quan- 
tita degli huomini molti Capi grandi, che haueuano come il Prencipe di Conde, 
Dandalotto, et tanti altri, talmente che non accade far paragone dell' armi 
sue a quelle del Re, essi sono senza denari, et non possono cosi a loro posta 
piu cauare nuoui soccorsi d'Alemagna, et Sua M'a- ne ha da sborsare ad essi a 
millione, et pub hauer Reistri, Suizzari, Italiani, et Spagnuoli quanto li place, 
et purche uolesse sarebbe aiutato da tutta la Christianita, et quello che importa 
non meno di tutto il Resto, ha ad arbitrio, et disposition sua la giustitia, 
con la quale sola non e dubbio, che sarebbe bastante de regolare il tutto. 

Sono accettate questc ragioni perche non si pub negare. Ma si risponde, 
che la Nobilta di Francia, che e quella dalla quale depende il Popolo, total- 
mente e corrotta per la maggior parte, et da questo procede tutto il male, che 
la grandezza del Re proprio in ogni tempo e stata principalmente per il seguito, 
et obedienza de i Nobili, et mancandogli essi Sua M'^ resterebbe debolissima, 
et allegano le battaglie guadagnate per diuina dispositione, che non si sono 
poi proseguite, nh cauatone quel frutto, che si speraua, et douenasi. Onde 
si ua imprimendo nell' animo di Sua M'a che per quel verso mai si potra uedere 
il fine, et che perb manco mai sia essere ricorso all' accordo in quel modi, che 
si h potuto, perchfe il tempo fara ben lui. Le quali fallacie sono troppo pal- 
pabili, toccandosi con mano, et uedendosi con I'occhio chiaramente doue 
sta la magagna: percioche il Re uorra recarsi la mente al petto, e redursi a 



APPENDICES 553 

memoria delle cagioni, perche non fu seguitata la Vittoria dopo la battaglia 
di San Dionigi, et perche si diede tempo tante, et tante settimane alii Ribelli 
di riunirsi, et stabilirsi nelloro capo, et non si uolse mai obedire d'andare a 
cauarli da Monteri, o Faulnona, come sa chiunque si trouo, che si poteua 
fare senza alcun pericolo, et perchfe a Craton in Campagna, quando si segui- 
tauano li Ribelli non si uolse combatterli, ne manco andarli appresso da 
uicino, o tagliargli i passi, come e palese, che si poteua per non impedirgli 
la congiuntione con il soccorso, che ueniua loro di Germania, conoscera mani- 
festamente Sua M^^ di essere stata tradita, et sa da chi, et lo proua da far 
punire i malfattori per giustitia, ma non e stata consigliata da uenirne mai 
all' esecutione, perche Sua M^^^ non ha uoluto consigliarsi con altri, che con 
coloro che la tradiscono. Veggasi quel che segui poi con I'altra pace fatta 
con mira, et intentione di dare la stretta alii capi di quella maledetta setta, 
dopo che hauessero deposte 1' armi, et reso le Fortezze; accioche con tal mezo 
si conseguisca 1' intento, che si deue hauere senza tanto sangue per non de- 
bilitare le forze proprie. Ma i traditori, che dauano il Consiglio, o almeno 
erano partecipi di esso, seppero guidare le cose in modo, et si lascio uscire 
la uolpe dalla tana, et porto il caso, che appunto quelli di cui altri si fidaua 
pill, et che haueua I'ordine di fare 1' essecutione, auuertissero si a tempo i 
Ribelli, che furono i primi a repigliare 1' armi, et uscirne di Noyrs, et con- 
seruaroi>si la Roccella, et hebbero in ordine di poter pigliare Angoslen per 
forza, prima che le forze del Re fossero unite esse da opponesseli, che anco 
questp, come il resto uiene procedette tutto dalli traditori tiranti adrieto le 
prouisioni Regie per dar tempo a complici di lauorare, Piacque pur poi a Dio, 
che miracolosamente fosse ammazzato, il Prencipe di Conde, et disfatto parte 
delle genti di Moners, ma non si seguito, come si poteua doueua, et conueniuasi. 
Venne ancora il Duco di Dupponti, che si poteua combatterlo, et uincerlo al 
sicuro, et non si fece per le cagioni, che si seppero, et pure non ci si prouidde. 
Fu seguitato, et verso Limoges si hebbero diuerse occasioni di romperlo senza 
alcun risico, et non fu esseguito per la colpa di chi n' impediua la essecutione 
con Fautorita, che haueua nell' essercito Regio; accioche si lasciasse se unire col 
Coligni, anzi fii procurato con buona cura di guardare 1' Essercito Regio in 
forma, et in siti, che la fame, et gli stenti 1' hauessero a fare sbandare, dando 
andito, commodita, et aiuto a ribelU di godere il Paese, et d'impatronirsi de' 
magazzeni, de uittouaglie munitioni, et artigliarie preparate da alcune persone, 
che si era troppo apparentemente ueduto, che erano colpeuoli, in cio si uenne 
al paragone, come questi tali scellerati traditori erano di piia autorita, essi 
appresso le loro Maesta, che "qualunque recordaua la salute, et il seruitio di 
esse, come riusci similmente quando si era fatta deliberatione de Suizzeri, 
et Italiani, cosi all' ingrosso, che il Re auesse facolta di farsi la ragione con 1' 
armi a malgrado de Francesi, che la seruiuano male, i quali misero su Mons"" 
Duca d'Angiii che la impregno, come cosa che offendesse la dignita, et honor 



554 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

proprio di Sua Altezza, conoscendo chiaramente, che 1' intenteone de chi 
gouernaua, et consigliaua Sua M^^ non era uolta ad altro fine, che fargli inimici, 
ouero dif&denti tutti gli altri Prencipi, et in somma priuarlo di tutti gli aiuti 
estemi. 

Le difiicolta, che furono interposte, per consumar tempo nell' andare al 
soccorso di Poiters, sono anco loro ben note, perche uhebbero da interuenire 
diuersi capi, che andarono con le genti ItaUane, finalmente, come Piacque 
a Dio segui la battaglia di Moncontor, dopo la quale il Re medesimo sa, come 
fu tenuto a bada sotto San Giouanni d'Angelin, ne si uolse mai mandare parte 
della Cauallaria, non che tutto I'Essercito dietro aUi Ribelli rotti, et in fuga, 
di sorte che non era possibile, che si riunissero, se non se gli fusse lasciato 
in preda le migliori, et piii opulenti Prouincie di Francia per accrescere loro 
il seguito de Padroni, et lasciarli reinferscare, et rimettere insieme. Dalle 
quali cose si ode, che il Re medesimo ha scorto qualche cosa, che gli ha fatto 
nausea. Ma essendo Sua M'^^ attomiata di gente, che lo cerca d'ingannare, 
et tradire per ogni uerso, ella non puo discernere i Lacci, che gli sono tesi ne 
i pericoli doue si troua, pero e da cercare di far la molto ben capace delle 
sopradette cose, mostrandoli, che es non si lieua da torno quel ribaldi, che 
cercauano cosi grandi artificij di rouinarla, ella si prouochera 1' ira di Dio, 
ne douera piii sperare nella sua diuina misericordia, che cosi miracolosamente 
r ha sostenuto, et protetto fino al presente, ma restara in preda di coloro, che 
non hanno altra mira, che di fare andare in precipitio la Sua Corona. 

Di sopra e fatto mentione di alcuni particolari de piii sostantiali, accioche 
accadendosi si sappiano addurre per essempio al Re, alia persona del quale 
pare, che si debba far capo direttamente, et parlare a Sua Mta senza maschera, 
perche certo non se gU puo far maggior benefitio, che id storarh le orecchie, 
et aprirgh occhi, et la mente per farli bene intendere liberamente, come non 
resta, che da lei medesima, se non uorra porre rimedio a tanti mali, a quali 
tutti pub prouedere facilmente, con punire quelli, che nominatamente si 
daranno in una lista, et degli altri, che gli paia, che lo meritino, secondo il 
riscontro, che trouara su le scritture cauate da Casa Coligni, et ancora, che 
alii ribelli di Christo, et suoi, che hanno fatto tutte, et si grandi, et inaudite 
sceleratezze, secondo 1' opinione di alcuni, non accade considerare di guardar 
Fede 6 promessa fatta, nondimeno si puo fare di castigare solo quelli, che hanno 
tradito, mentre seruiuano nel campo, 6 nel Consiglio regio, che fia senza 
alcun dubio a bastanza. 

Hassi d' auuertire ancora il Re, come fin che Sua M^a se n' e ita presso alle 
grida, et e stata con effetti del tutto Ingannata, ella puo esser scusata appresso 
Dio, et al Mondo, ma dopo che saranno scoperte le magagne, et rappresen- 
tatole la uerita, et il modo di non star piii in preda, et alia descrittione de' 
traditori se non ci puo: uedera la colpa di tutti i male, si ridurranno sopra le sue 
spalle, et restara abbandonata da Sua Diuina M'a. appresso della quale piii 



APPENDICES 555 

non uarranno i prieghi, et oratione del Papa, et de gli buoni, et fedeli, che 
forse hanno giouato piu di ogni altro aiuto humano a sostenerla. Vedesi, 
che gli Heredi uanno cercando sottilmente a qualunque occasione di fare che 
il Re offenda Dio per prouocargli il suo giusto sdegno, mettendogli inanzi con 
la sua pelosa carita di conseruarsi 1' amicitia del Turco di usurpare i ben; 
Ecc". etfinoa mettersi a fare nuove Imprese fuora del Regno col mezo delle. 
lore Armi, la qual ultima cosa non e incredibile in alcun mode se gia il Re 
non uolesse darsi loro in preda del tutto, percioche quando quell' armi si 
uoltassero. contra qualunque si sia stato di Prencipe Catholico Nostro Sig'^e 
non potrebbe mancare di far quanto si appartiene al debito dell' offitio suo, 
senza risguardo d' altra mondana consideratione, trattandosi della gloria d; 
Dio, et conseruatione della Sua Santa Legge, nel qual caso Sua Beatitudine 
sarebbe forzata di procurare con la medesima caldezza di souuenire, et aiutare 
altri contra gli Heretici, che ha fatto con il Re Cat™, et con Venettiani, la qual 
Lega si ha da ricercare, che sia uolta contra gli Heretici, et Infedeli, piutosto, 
che altroue. 

Sopra la competenza, et gara de grandi, si possono dir moltj particolari 
in uoie, che saria troppo lunga cosa mettere in scrittura, basta, che tutto 
seruono a negare la debita obedienza al Padrone, et al uoler portar 1' armi 
con le quali s' impedisce la giustitia, et fino a tanto che il Re non punisce a 
qualche uno de buoni, che lo meriti, perche altri non preuarichi poi in modo, 
che una parte, et 1' altre si chiarisca per effetto, come Sua M'a- uuole con- 
seruarsi la superiorita, che se gli conuiene, mai sara libera da queste molestie, 
et sempre si stara in preda di ogni uno. 

E. uerisimile, che la Reina ami piu di tutti gli altri lo Stato, et la uita 
del Re et 1' unione, et conseruatione de gli altri suoi Figliuoli, essendo essa 
prudente quanto si sa, et hauendo tanta cognitione delli humori, quanta le 
ha fatta imparare la lunga amministratione del Gouerno, che ella ha hauuto, 
pero non si puo dubitare, che Sua M^a per ambitione di conseruarsi 1' autorita 
preuarichi in parte alcuna di quel che deue, ma la proua ci ammonisce troppo, 
che da lei non si pu6 aspettare quelle esecutioni, che ha mostro al Duca d'Alua 
in Fiandra, che basta a stabilire le soUeuationi, et ribellione, perche il sesso 
non gli lo promette, et anco in uerita di essere scusata, essendo stata Fora- 
stiera, et senza appoggio di potersi reggere secondo lei in simili casi, bisog- 
nando delle cotai deliberationi persona di gran cuore, et che habbia oltre 1' 
autorita 1' attitudine di fare con le mani proprie, quando 1' occasioni lo ricerchi, 
pero con la Mta- della Reina, non pare che accada pensare di poter profittare 
per tal uerso, si che il trattarne con essa non si deue hauere per opportuno, 
et anco di questo si potrebbe pigliar Conseglio sul luogo per gouemarsene 
secondo che giudicassero meglio quelli che si sa, che sono buoni, et ueri Cat^i 
et che non hanno pivi mira alle passioni particolari per il desiderio di hauer 
maggior partecipatione nel Gouerno, che al seruitio, et ben publico. 



556 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Intorno alle quali cose e ben necessario, che chi sara impiegato habbia 
molta prattica, et gran prudenza da saper usare la descrittione essendoci 
bisogno di somma consideratione, percioche quando si trouasse tanto in preda 
a chi gl' Inganna, che altri si disperasse di poter illuminarlo, et che si restasse 
ben chiaro di non douer cauar Frutto dalla persona di Sua M^a sarebbe da 
uoltarsi forse ad altra strada, cioe uerso quei Prencipi, et grandi, che si con- 
seruano Catholici, et che restano essosi et esclusi dal Re, et dal gouemo, et 
priui di autorita, et reputatione, i quali se haueranno un capo dependente 
dal Papa del quale sappino di potersi fidare, sono atti a uolersene, et con il 
mezo della sua autorita far tale unione d' arme di Cat" in quel Regno, che 
il Re sia forzato a riconoscersi del suo errore, perche la maggior parte delle 
Prouincie di quel Regno sono sotto il gouemo de Prencipe, o Sig^e Cat™, cias- 
cuno de quali sapra, et potra ridurre le associationi, che furono incominciate 
con i loro Capi minori, et mediocri, et supremi da ualersi dell' arme, nel modo 
stesso, che hanno sempre usato gli Ugonotti, et con esse dare adosso a gli 
Ugonotti da ogni parte per estingueme la prima razza, che anco sopra cio 
in uoce si pub esprimere uarie cose, le quali sarebbono noiose a mettere in 
scritto, et a tal proposito si pub ridarre a memoria quello che loro Mta man- 
darono ad offerire al Papa per sicurta della loro rissolutione di non uolere 
mancare subbito, che potessero liberare quel Regno dalla Heresia, cioe di 
capitulare espressamente, che a detti Gouematori delle Prouincie se le usur- 
passero in caso di tal mancamento. 

L' abbandonare questa causa non e secondo la bonta, et pieta di Nostro 
Sig'« ne a ragion di Stato conciosiache non si prouedendo e da dubitare, et da 
tener per certo, che gli Ugonotti anderanno sependo, et cercando d' impatro- 
nirsi se gli riuscisse a fatto del Regno per procedere poi anco piu oltre con 
imprese esterne, et forse hanno dissegno col mettere su il Re a nuoue Imprese 
di conseguir 1' una, et 1' altra Impresa in un medesimo tempo col far morire 
il Re, et li Fratelli, et altri grandi, che potessero per uia di congiure, et di 
tradimenti preualersi dell' entrata della Corona, et del Clero a sostenere 
solo r Imprese cominciate in compagnia del Re, la qual consideratione, 
sebene paresse lontana non e da gettarsi dopo le spalle; anzi e consentaneo 
alia ragione di permedi tarsi, et fare con la prudenza quei rimedy, che sono 
giudicati piu conuenienti. 

Fra quaH s' intenda il mandare al Re, et alii Cat", una persona sola, o due, 
una diretta a Sua M'a. et 1' altra alii Cat", che si riferisca, et obedisca al prin- 
cipale. 

Forse non sarebbe inconueniente di mandare anco uerso il Re Cat^o. per- 
sona ben confidente, et sincera et rissoluta, che potesse cauare Sua M^a- Cat^a. 
de Generali, parlandogli con buona intelligenza delli humori prefati di Francia, 
et mostrandogli quanto sia il pericolo, che portano gH Stati di Fiandra, si 
perche con il tempo diuentando Heretica la Francia, quelli Stati infetti di 



APPENDICES 557 

gia non si potranno a modo alcuno conseruare da Sua M'^. Cat^^ quali remedij 
ella presume di farci, et sapere, accioche si potesse disponere, et pensare se 
con i Vinetiani et altri Prencipi si potesse fare simili offitij per tastarli il polso 
douendo essi presumere, che sempre, che fusse mosso guerra alii Stati del 
Re di Spagna a loro non rincrescesse di potersi aiutare della Lega fatta, ma 
necessario, non che opportune, in ogni caso pare il far prouisione qua de 
danari, de quali Sua Beat^e. ha a ualersi grossamente, si per aiutare quelle cose, 
come per diffendere Italia, et il resto della Christianita dalle forze di questa 
scelerata setta. Et perche le dehberationi di tanta importanza, nella quale 
si tratta della salute del Regno, et della conseruatione della Santa Sede, et 
della Christianita si hanno da fare con matura consideratione, si potrebbe 
per auentura discernere meglio qual partito fosse da pigliare prima, o poi, et 
come, et fino a qual termine udendone il parere di quelle persone, che pares- 
sero, et fussero giudicate intelligenti, et confidenti. Quanto alle richieste 
fatte adesso dal Re, la risposta fatta da N^o Sig^e sopra la dispensa del Duca 
di Ghisa, et della Prencipessa di Portiano, non puo essere piii giusta, ma e 
facile a temperarla col mandare la dispensa del tutto spedita per chi andasse, 
accioche si uaglia di darla, o non appalesarla, secondo, che trouera, che sia 
piii a proposito per li humori; Conciosiache se si conclude affatto il Matri- 
monio di Portogallo, come e da stimare, che sia il disegno, chi sa che Madama 
Margherita non diuentasse moglie del Duca di Ghisa, piutosto che del Pren- 
cipe di Nauarra. Et circa il permettere che gli Ugonotti possino habitare 
sicuramente nella Citta, et Contado di Auignone, non parche accada stare in 
dubbio, che Sua Santita, non lo puo, ne deue concedere, ma di restituire i 
loro beni, et lasciarli contrattare, perche ne sgombrano, si puo ben forse 
hauerci consideratione, se con questa gratia fatta al Re si uedesse di accomodare 
con Sua Mta qualche una delle cose piu sostantiali, et anco cio pare, che bisogni 
rimettere alia descrittione, et prudenza di chi si uolesse mandare, il quale deue 
hauere per massima, che sempre, che il Re uoglia essere cosi impio, che si risolua 
di fare quello, che puo per leuare al Papa, et alia Santa Sede quello Stato, non ci 
e rimedio a diflfendersi, ne essendo Auignone troppo circondato dalle sue forze, 
pero conuiene auitarsi di conseruarselo, come si e fatto per 1' adietro in tutti 
i tempi con 1' autorita, et beneuolenza, et fauore del Re, al quale se puo rimo- 
strare che N™ Sig"^^. non uuole, ne intende tenere con 1' armi perturbato il suo 
Regno, ma solo tanta guardia nella Citta, et Terre, che ui sono, che basti a non 
lasciarle rubbare per tradimento a quattro di quel scalzi Ugonotti, come ne 
sono state tolte tante a Sua M'a. 

Douendo questa scrittura seruire solo per informatione delli humori di 
quel Regno, non pare, che accade farla ordinata, ne limitata, pero sara fatta, 
come si e potuto all' imprescia &c. 



558 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

APPENDIX XIY 

[P. 354, n. i] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. XCVII, No. 1,711 

[Printed pamphlet of 6 pages] 

[Title page] 

ESTABLISSE 

MENT DE LA FrATERNITE 
DES CatHOLICQUES DE ChAALON SUR 

Saone erigee a l'honneur 

DU Benoist Sainct 

Esprit en l'an 

1568 

[Woodcut representing the Holy Trinity] 

Au Nom DE Diev 

Amen 

Nous soubscritz bien | acertenez que la sain ] cte Eglise Catholique | ne 
peut faillir, errer, ny ] vaciller en I'observan | ce de la pure:, sincere ] & vraye 
volonte de lesu-Christ nostre ] souverain Dieu, comme estant co | lumne & 
fermete de verite, qui -est, & j doit estre de consequent fondee & esta \ blie 
sur la doctrine des Prophetes, des ] Evangelistes, & des Apostres. Dont 
Je I su-christ mesme est la maistresse Pierre | angulaire qui a voulu le sainct 
Esprit 1 demeurer a iamais tant que le monde | sera monde eternellement 
avec sadicte [ Eglise Catholique. Dont n'est a croy | re, comme nous ne 
croyons que ] Dieu ayt permis son peuple Chre | stien vivant soubz ladite 
Eglise, estre ] par aveuglement en erreur, & idolatrie | par I'espace de mil 
cinq cens & plus ] d'ans. Soit par les celebrations de la sain | cte Messe, 
assistance du peuple & cere | monies d'icelle, entretenue par tant de | sainctz 
& grandz personages en scavoir, | religion, saincte vie, martyrises pour le | 
nom de Dieu, Confesseurs vivans austere | ment en toute parfaicte doctrine, 
Vier I ges, que autres bons fidelles d'icele Egli | se catholique. Par I'approba- 
tion de la | quelle (non autrement) nous avons pure ] credence des sainctes 
escritures, du Viel | & Nouueau Testament, done d'icelle | Ion ne se doit 
devoyer, retirer, ny demen | tir en maniere, que ce soit, sans blasphe | me, 
erreur, & damnation. Mais doit Ion | par I'ayde supplication, Sr prieres a | 
Dieu, & illumination de son S. Esprit | estre fermes & stables, reiectant tous 
flots I des persuasions de nouvelle doctrine, | soubs quelconque pretexte quelle 
puis 1 se estre suggeree. 

A ceste consideration par in | tention Chrestienne soubs la divine puis |- 
sance & espoir par I'inflammation du [ benoist S. Esprit d'estre maintenus 
& I conservez en nos consciences, en I'union, | mansuetude, crainte, & obeis- 
sance d'icel 1 le Eglise catholique, a I'imitation de la | maieste du Roy nostre 
sire, & soubs sa | protection & bon plaisir, desirans nous [ efforcer de luy 



APPENDICES 559 

rendre & rapporter sub ] mission & prompte obeissance, en tou | tes les choses, 
que nous voyons, &. sea | vons estre observees, selon la saincte vo | lonte de 
Dieu, au salut eternel de nos | ames, par sadicte maieste royale 8i ses | tresex- 
cellens predecesseurs, qui ont ve | scu & sont decedez puis I'heure qu'ilz | ont 
estez oinctz & sacrez de la celeste | unction par le mystere de la saincte Mes | se 
dont ilz remportent le nom de tres | chrestiens. | 

Nous avons soubz ledict bon vou | loir & plaisir du Roy faict entre nous 
& I pour tous autres Catholiques qui ad ] ioindre se vouldront une fratemite 
qui I s'appellera Confrairie & societe des Ca | tholicques. En laquelle sera 
esleu un | Prieur pour luy obeir es choses & en | droicts concernans les poincts 
dessusdicts | circonstances&deppendancesamesme ] fin sera chascun dimanche 
a noz fraiz | celebree une Messe du Benoist sainct ] Esprit en I'eglise de 
nostre dame des Car | mes de Chaalon & aultres iours qui sera ] avise par 
ledict Prieur ou seront tenuz ] d'assister ceulx qui seront appellez pour | ladicte 
assemblee en bonne & louable de | votion & continuer en prieres qu'il plaise | 
a nostre pere celeste conserver sa dicte 1 Eglise & la purger de toutes pertur- 
ba I tions & remettre icelle en une seule foy & | donner prosperite a nostre 
Roy en tous ] ses affaires & luy prolonger la vie a la gloi | re & sanctification 
du nom de Dieu a I'avan | cement & manutention de la religion Ca | tholique 
& courone de France & sil adve | noit (que Dieu ne vueille) que quelques j 
uns par une effrenee volonte entreprins | sent contre I'intention de sa dicte 
male | ste d'user d'emotions, iniures, detractions | contre ladicte religion 
Catholique, vio | lences sacrileges, invasions, conventicules, j a 1' effect des- 
susdict, batteries, meurtres, | pilleries d'Eglise, rouptures d'aultelz ] images, 
croix, & choses dediees au servi | ce divin. Promettons y resister par tous | 
•deux moyens tant par promptz advertis | semens aux superieurs & iusques 
a sa di I cte maieste que aultrement comme il sera ] de besoin. Et si les 
effortz estoyent si pe | tulentz qu'ilz requissent prompt empe | schement: 
Promettons y tenir par une | unanimite la main & faire tout ce que | par nos 
superieurs sera ordonne pour la | manutention de ladicte religion, resister | 
aux entreprinses contraires. Et au cas ] qu'il advint que Dieu ne vueille que 
les I persones de sa maieste & de messieurs ] ses freres qui maintiennent & 
maintien ] dront nostredicte religion & Corone fus j sent oppressees de sorte 
que ne sceussions | avoir advertissemens de leurs volontez. | Promettons 
rendre toute obeissance au | general chef qui sera esleu sur la presen | te 
societe. En tesmoin desquelles cho [ ses susdictes & pour I'observance & 
ac I complissement d'icelles. Nous les avons j tous soubsignez & marquez 
de noz ] seings & marques accoustumez audict | Chaalon, le dimanche vingt- 
cinquiesme | iour du mois d'Avril I'an mil cinq cens ] soixante huict. 

Comme Secretaires esleus en ladicte fratemite & par ordon- 
nance du superieur en icelle. Lambert 

[Not endorsed] ^ Belye. 

I This letter is printed V. and is altered in ink to B. 



560 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

APPENDIX XV 

[P. 354, n. 4] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. C, No. 1,862 
[Catholic League in Maine] 
Nous soubsignez confederez et alliez par saincte et divine alliance pour la 
continuation et maintention de Ihonneur souverain deu a notre Dieu le createur 
et aux commandementz & ordonnances de la saincte eglise catholique apos- 
tolique & romaine et pour la maintention de lestat du Roy treschrestien et 
trescatholique, notre souverain prince esleu & a nous bailie par la grace et 
providence divine pour notre chef & souverain terrien debateur & conservateur 
de lad. eglise catholique & romaine et des sainctz decretz & concilles dicelle, 
et de lobeissance que nous et tous ses bons subiectz luy devons et a noz seig- 
neurs ses freres aussi treschrestiens & trescatholiques, repoz de son Royaume 
& de tout son peuple Et afin de maintenir lad. eglise et religion catholique 
apostolique & romaine pour obvier par tous moyens licites raisonnables et 
permis de Dieu aux damnees entreprinses machinations et conspirations que 
Sathan a mys es cueurs daucuns malheureux qui ont tendu & tendent par 
tout lesd. artz dyaboliques de non seulement imminer mais du tout subvertir 
lad. religion catholique apostolique & romaine et lestat & auctorite du Roy 
notre bon souverain catholique et treschrestien Prince & legitime defenseur 
dicelle et de nosd. s^s ses freres, et pour tenir moyennant layde de Dieu et le 
consentement & accord de leurs mates tout le peuple en repoz Pour servir a 
Dieu & a notre mere saincte eglise et rendre lobeissance deue a leurs Mates, 
faire obeir la justice tant de ses courtz de parlementz que autres ses juges 
magistratz, Promettons et jurons vivre et mourir en lad. reUgion catholique 
apostolique & Romaine et lobeissance deue ausd. Mates et a leur justice 
Nous promettons aussi & jurons ensemble toute obeissance service et ayde 
et de noz personnes & biens pour empescher & courir sus avec leurs auctoritez 
contre tous perturbateurs innovateurs et contrevenantz a lad. religion; en 
estats desd. mates & a leurs sainctz & catholiques edictz & ordonnances divines 
& polytiques et de nous secourir les ungs les autres aux effectz susd. par tous 
moyens contre tous rebelles heretiques sectaires de la nouvelle religion en 
quelque lieu quilz soient & qui en sont suspectz ou nadherentz a notre party 
et tendans a fins contraires. Le tout jusques a la mort inclusivement. Le 
xje luillet 1568. 

Depuis ces presentes signees par la noblesse mercredy dernier elles furent 
signees en cahier distinct toutesfois en mesme livre par les presbytres. Et 
vendredy portees par lesd. presbytres auturs estat Et y ont soubsigne les es- 
chevins 8z procureurs de la ville plusieurs des officiers du Roy et des bourgeois 
avec menasses a ceulx qui nont voulu signer destre tenuz suspectz. Et par 



APPENDICES 561 

la conference quils ont eue tous ensemble, la noblesse sest chargee du reigle- 
ment pour assembler et dresser les gens de guerre et ceulx qui peuvent porter 
les armes et dadviser et eslire les chefz pour leur communte. Et les presbytres 
et le tiers estat sen sont de tout submys a la noblesse. lis font signer & jurer 
par les bourgades aux procureurs & plus apparentz des parroisses. 

Lesgail sest faict en la ville du Mans pour la solde des harquebuziers a 
cheval pour mons"" le seneschal de Maine Et ayant a son arrivee trouve les 
portes assez mal gardies a faict publier la garde avec injunction des peynes. 

[Not signed] 

[Endorsed] Copie de lassociation faicte | par les provinces. 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. C, No. 1,863 
Cest le Roole de la saincte union contenant quarante rooles en 
parchemin cestluy compris. 
Nous soubsignez confederez & alliez par saincte et divine aliance es Duche 
Canton et Conte du Maine, pour la continution et manutention de I'honneur 
deu a Dieu notre createur, de ses sainctz comandementz, et ordonnances de 
la saincte Eglise catholicque, apostolicque et Romaine: Et pour la manu- 
tention de lestat du Roy treschrestien et trescatholicque notre Souverain 
Prince, esleu et a nous bailie par la grace et providence divine pour notre 
Chef et Souverain terrien dominateur et conservatc de lad. saincte Eglise 
Catholicque, Apostolicque et Romaine, et des sainctz decretz et conciles 
d'icelle, et de lobeyssance que nous et tous ses bons subiectz luy debuons, 
et a tous nos Seigneurs ses freres aussy treschrestiens et trescathoHcques 
Princes, repos de son Royaume, et de tout son peuple: Et afin de maintenir 
lad. s'e egUse et Religion catholicque, ApostoHque et Romaine, po^ obvier 
par tous moyens licites raisonnables et permis de Dieu, aux damnees entre- 
prinses, machinations et conspirations que Sathan a mises es cueurs d'aucuns 
malheureux qui ont tendu et tendent par tous artz diaboHques de non seule- 
ment imminuer mais du tout subvertir lad. Religion catholique; Prince tres- 
chrestien et legitime defenseur, et de nosd. Sieurs ses freres. Et pour tenir 
moyennant layde de Dieu, consentement et accord de leurs maiestez, tout le 
peuple en repos pour servir a Dieu et rendre lobeyssance deue a leursd^s maie- 
stes, faire obeyr la justice, tant de ses Cours de parlement que aultres des 
juges et magistratz. Promettons et jurons vivre et mourir en lad^ Religion 
Catholique Apostolique et Romaine et obeyssance deue ausd^s Maiestes Aus- 
quelles Maiestez et lustice nous promettons et jurons toute obeyssance, secours, 
et ayde, et de nos personnes empescher et courir sus, aveq leurs authoritez, 
a tous perturbateurs, innovateurs, et contrevenants a lad. Religion, et Estatz 
desdes Maiestez, et a leurs sainctz et catholiques Edictz, et ordonnances divines 
et politiques: Et nous secourir les uns les autres aux effectz susd^^ par tous 



562 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

moyens centre tous rebelles, heretiques, sectaires tendantz a fin contraires 
Le tout jusques a la mort inclusivement. Faict et arreste au Mans lunzi^^^ 
jour de luUet 1568. 

[Not signed] 
[Endorsed in Cecil's hand] 

Copy of a Conspyracion by | vow, in France by the | Catholicques 
ag. the contraryes. 



APPENDIX XVI 

[P. 359, n. i] 

STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC 

Elizabeth, Vol. XL VII, No. 72 
[Walsinpham to Cecil] 
Sr . . . . 
Notw^standynge my frend doothe assure me that he is advertysed by sooche 
as he doothe imploye in that behalfe, that ther wer of late certeyne lodged in 
Sowthewerke whoe nowe are departed, whos clos keping of them selves gave 
great .cause of suspytion of no dyrect meanynge. At this p'"sent s^ I am re- 
quested by him to advertyce you that in taulke that passed of late betwene the 
new come Cardynaule and him, towching the undyrect dealynges of the Car- 
dynaule of Loreyne emongest other thinges he shewed him that thre of late 
were sent by the sayde Car. of Loreyne to exequte the lewde practyce in the 
searche wherof yt pleasethe you to imploye us two of the partyes, he thus 
descrybed them unto him as followethe. The one to be of natyon an englyshe- 
man, of complexion sangwine, his beard read, and cot (as commonly they terme 
yt marchesetto) of vysage leane, of stature hye. The other of natyon an 
Italyan, of complexion cholerycke and swarte, his bearde of leeke hue, and cot, 
of vysage full faced, of stature and proportyon lowe, and sooche as commonly 
we tearme a trubbe. After I had herde the descryptyon of them I declared 
unto him that alreadye ye were advertysed of the leeke and that you towld 
me that thos descryptyons were so generayle, as they myght as well towche 
the innocent as the gyltye. I further towlde him (as of my selfe) that the Car- 
dynall Shatyllglion myght use this as a meane to make his ennemye the more 
odyowse to this estate. To the fyrst he replyed, that the rather he had cause 
to bs iealowse of thos descryptyons, for that he knewe an Inglysheman of 
leeke descryptyon, havinge the Italyan tonge verry well, and the Frenche 
reasonably well, that passed to and fro betwene the pope and the Card, of L. 
and also the seyde partye resorted myche to the noble man that at that tyme 
was lodged in my frendes howse; and therfor the rather he seyde he was leeke 
to be imployed in so lewd a practyce. To the seconde he seyd that he hath 



APPENDICES 563 

had so good exsperyence of the synceryte and dyrect dealyiige of the howse of 
ShatigHon as he knowethe assuredly that they woold not seeke by so undyrect 
a meane to make any man odyowse: And say the he further to assure you, 
that sooche a practyce may be in hande: I knowe by letters that I sawe by a 
secret meane wrytten from Roome unto the bysshop of Viterbo, abowt syxe 
years passed, in the tyme of B. Francys (of late memorye) the leeke practyce 
was in hande the cavse also I knowe whie yt tooke no place, and therof can 
advertyce m"" Secretarye when yt shall please him to deal w* me in that behalfe. 
Besides to provoke me to wryte he added further, that he understood by sooche 
as he imployed in searche at Sowthewerk that one of thos whom they holde 
for suspected shoold have a redd berde, w* the rest of the merks aboverecyted: 
and therfor for that he is not to be fownds in Sowthewerke, he dowbtethe he 
may be repeyred to the coorte: wherfor he desyerethe you most earnestly, 
that ther may be some appoynted by you fytt for the purpose to have regarde 
in that behalfe. Thus levinge any further to troble your honor I commyt 
you to God. From London the xv* of September a° 1568. 

Y^" honors to commaunde 

Fra: Walsyngham 
[Addressed] To the right Honorable S"" William 

Cicill principall Secretarye and 

one of her Ma'^s privie counsel! 

At the 

Court. 
[Endorsed] 15 fbr, 1568. 

M'^ Francis Walsingham to 

mv m'^ 



APPENDIX XVII 

[P. 375, n. 2] 
STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 
Elizabeth, Vol. CX, No. 533 
[News jrom La Rochelle] 
Monsieur I'Amiral escript du commencement du moys de lanvier, que 
larmee de Messeigneurs les Princes se trouve fort gaillarde et plus saine quelle 
n'a este depuis ung an, et estime quele changement d'air a este ung des moyens, 
dont Dieu s'est servy pour faire cesser les maladies qui y ont regne jusques a 
lors. Lad. armee estoit au port de s'^. Marie a trois lieues d'Agen et tenoit 
tout le bord de la riviere de la Garonne depuis les portes d'Agen jusqs 
pardela Marmande et du long de la riviere du Loth jusqs a Villeneufve 
ou y a de petites villes mais riches & abondantes de toutes choses necessaires 
a une armee, et desquelles on tire quelques finances. 



564 TH5; WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Mon: le Conte de Montgommery est de I'autre bord de la riviere de la 
Garonne tenant tout le pais de la jusqs en Beam et jusques a Lengon, et 
au hault de la riviere jusqs a Haultvillar qui de son coste amasse le plus de 
finances quil peut. II ny a point dennemys qui facent teste, ou donnent 
empeschemt Ilz se tiennent clos & converts dedans les villes et laissent la 
campaigne libre aux dictzs^s Princes. Mons. le Mar^i Danville se tient a 
Tholose, et mons"" de Montluc a Agen. Ilz ont des forces mais separees 
& mal unies de voluntez et de lieux. Le S^ de la Vallette avoit este envoye 
pour les rassembler et s'essayer de faire plus que lesditz Si's Danville et Montluc 
mais il s'en est retoume sans rien faire. 

Mons' de Pilles et ceux qui estoient dedans S' lehan sont venuz au camp 
bien sains et gaillards, ayans soubstenu le siege tant que les pouldres ont dure 
& faict actes aussy belliqueux & magnanimes qui se sount faictz de notre cage 
en siege de ville. 

II avoit este faict ung pont a batteaux sur lad. riviere de la Garonne sur 
lequel hommes, chivaux charettes et artillerie avoient passe huyt jo^s durant, 
mais tant par la rive des eaux que par la faulte dung qui estoit alle prendre ung 
moulin des ennemys po^ lamener aud. port de Ste Marie, lad. moulin luy est 
eschappe et a choque et rompu led. pont. Si est ce quon y a depuis donne tel 
ordre quon ne laisse de passer. 

II y a plush's advertissements quil y a quatre mil Espaignolz a la frontiere 
d'Lespaigne & que le Prince Daulphin s'en va les trouver avec une troupe de 
cavalerie po"" le^ faire escorte. 

Mr de Lavauguyon est venu entre les deux rivieres de la Dordogne et du 
Loth avec vingt cornettes de cavalerie pour tenir les passages desdictes rivieres, 
doubtant que Messrs les Princes les veillent repasser, mais cela na empesche 
le S'^ de Pilles de passer le Loth, et saprocher desdictes cornettes, esperant les 
reveoir de plus pres en brief. 

Les reistres des dictz seigneurs Princes ont receu ung payement, et son, 
si bien satisfaictz et contens que jamais ne fut veu une plus obeissante nationt 
Ilz sont partie dela la riviere auec M. le Conte de Montgommery et partie decha, 
ne faisans difficulte de se separer et recevoir le commandant de tons ceux quil 
est ordonne et d'aller en tons lieux ou il IC est commande. 

Mons. le Conte de Mansfeld faict infiniz bons offices tous les jors,esquelz 
il monstre ung zele a ceste cause avec une magnanimite, de laquelle il ne cede 
a person quelconques. Et ne fault doubter que Dieu ne layt envoye pour ung 
tresgrand bien et necessaire comme aussy le Conte Ludovic de Nassau prince 
tresvertueux et fort advise. 

Quand a la negotiation de la paix, les admis de la Rochelle portent que 
ung moys durant le Roy et la Royne ont souvent envoye devers la Royne de 
Navarre pour I'exhorter a entendre au bien de la paix et haster les deputez, 
lesquelz ont longuement differe a cause des difficultez qui ont este mises en 
avant tant po^ le peu de seurete quon trouvoit aux passeportz qui estoient 



APPENDICES 565 

envoyez de la partie de Ic^ majestez, que po'' la distance du lieu, ou le pourparte 
de lad. paix estoit assigne et ordonne, qui est la ville d'Angiers, en laquelle 
a Cct se retrouve a present. 

Finalement leurs majestes ont renvoye autres passeportz, et depesche le 
s'' du Croq le^ m^ d'hgstel, pour conduire lesdictz deputez, lesquelz furent 
nomez au conseil tenu a la Rochelle le x™^ de lanvier, ascavoir, les s'''' de 
Beauvoir la Node lieutenant de feu Mons. d'Andelot, Cargeoy gentilhomme 
de Bretaigne, Compain chancelier et la Chassetiere Brodeau secretaire de la 
Royne de Navarre. Le S"" de Theligny est aussy des deputez, mais avec sauf 
conduit pour et retoumer quand bon luy semblera et besoing sera, pour raporter 
no'es de lad. negotiation a lad. Dame Royne et a Messeigneurs les Princes et 
Mons. I'Amiral selon les occurrences. 

Et encore qu il semble que le Roy desire la paix et quon ayt advis quil la 
veult faire a quelque pris que ce soit, si est ce que pour le peu de foy et seurete 
quon a esprouve par deux foys en celle qui a este faute, on est resolu de la 
faire a ce coup avec laide de Dieu bonne, asseuree et inviolable. Et a ceste 
fin on a bailie aux dictz deputez ung pouvoir si restraint quilz ne peuvent rien 
conclure sans premier avoir ladvis de lad. dame Royne desdicts S''^ Princes 
et dud. S"" Amiral, et jusqs a ce quil ayt este par les susdictz dame Princes et 
S'^s arreste. Ce qui ne se fera sans pallablement avoir surce le conseil et 
deliberation de nos confederez et de ceux qui nous ont favorise, aide et secouru 
en ceste cause comme il est raisonable, et a fin de pouvoir mieux asseurer lad. 
paix; esperans que en y procedant de ceste facon et establissant le pur service 
de Dieu par dessus toutes choses il honora les actions de ceux qui y seront 
employez. 

Au reste la charge desdictz deputez consiste en trois points ascavoir la 
liberte des consciences et exercice de la Religion sans distinction de lieux 
ou personnes. La seurete & protection de nos vies et personnes & la restitu- 
tion de biens honne'irs charges, estatz et dignites. 

Ceux qui sont hors de ce Roy™e quon a resolu dadvertir premier que de 
conclure aucune chose sur le traicte et pourparte de la paix sont dune pt les 
princes D'allemaigne et mesmes monsie^ le Prince d'Aurenge, et dautre pt 
Monsie'' Le Car^* de Chastillon par ce quil y a eu si estroictes promesses et 
obligations faictes par ceux qui ont en pouvoirs de Messeu'"s les Princes, quil 
a este trouve raisonable de ne rien faire sans le commun advis de tous ceux 
qui sont participans ei ceste cause et qui lont favorisee. 

Le Baron de la garde se vante desja si la paix se conclut de faire ung voyage 
en Escosse avec ses galeres. 

[Not signed] 

[Not addressed] 

[Endorsed in Cecil's hand] lanvar 1569 

Extract of letters from Rochelle &c. 



566 THE^WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE ^*1 

APPENDIX XVIII 

[P. 387, n. I] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. CVIII, No. 359 

Catherine de Medici to the duke of Anjou 

[1569, September 10] 

Extraict de la lettre de la Royne escritte de sa propre main a Monseigneur 
le Due du dix^ne Sep^^e Dclxix escritte au Plessis les Tours. 

Mon filz, Sanger irent tout a ceste heure darriver de vostre frere par lequel 
nous a mande la bonne et utile nouvelle de 1 heureux desassiegement de Poittiers 
avec ung tresgrand honeur de mons"" de Guise et de tous ceulx qui y estoient 
pour le grand et notable service quilz ont fait a Dieu au roy et a ce royaume 
et de vostre frere de les avoir si bien secouruz qen faisant semblant dassieger 
Chastellerault et de donner ung faulx assault il a fait a quil vouloit et pourquoy 
le roy lavoit envoye et a ceste heure il regardera de mettre peine dabreger 
toute ceste guerre que avec layde de Dieu il mettra bien tost le repoz en ce 
royaume et me semble que jamais ny eust plus doccacion de remercier Dieu 
et le continuer de prier a fin quil nous mette hors de tant de maulx. 

{No address] [No signature] 

[Endorsed] Copie de la lettre de la Royne a Monseigneur le Due. 



APPENDIX XIX 

[P. 389, n. 4] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Volume CIX, No. 444 

[Norris to Cecil] 

Right honorable .... The Admirall hathe lately written to the Capen 

of la Charite that praise be givin to Gode he maye now joyne wth the vicountes 

at his pleas'" & that he hadd forces sufficient to make hedd to his Ennemis, 

Praying the Governor to loke carefully to the places on the frontiers & provide 

all thinges necessarie for the commyng of Mons^ de Lizy, withe the Armey 

of AUemagnes whiche puttithe these in great feare & use all meanes to treat 

a Peax that possibly the can ... . Wrytten at Tours thise 19*11 of December 

1569 • • • • Yo"" honours ever assuride to commaunde 

Henry Norreys 
[Addressed] to the Right. Honorable S^ William Cisill Knight principal! 
Secretarie to the Quene's most Excellent Maiestie & of hir 
highnes preavy Cownsell. 
[Endorsed] 19 xbr 1569 

Sr Henry Norreys to my m'" 
from Tours. 



APPENDICES 567 

APPENDIX XX 

[P. 392, n. 2] 
STATE PAPERS. FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. CXI, No. 580 
Double de la responce faicte par le Roy aux ar^^'es presenlez a 
sa Mate par les deputez de la Roine de Navarre. 
Le Roy ayant entendu ce qui luy a este expose de la part des deputez 
de la Roine de Navarre des Princes de Navarre de Conde S^s Gentils- 
hommes 81 autres de toutes qualitez qui sont avec eulx les treshumhles 
requestes faictes a sa Ma^ de leur donner la paix avec les seuretez qui 
sont en son pouvoir pour les faire jouir du benefice dicelle. Ensemble 
les submissions qui luy ont este faictes de luy rendre lobeissance & 
fidelite quilz lui doibvent Sadite Mate pour la singuliere affection quelle 
a tousjours portee a la Roine de Navarre Princes de Navarre & de 
Conde pour la proximite de sang dont ilz luy appartiennent Le desir 
quelle a de la conservacion de ses subgectz speciallement de sa noblesse 
pour monstrer a eulx & a tous les dessusditz son affection & clemence 
paternelle & royalle envers eulx et la volunte quelle a de voir ses 
subgectz ensemble revinz soubz son obeissance & son royaulme en 
repos de troubles qui y sont de present leur a accorde pour parvenir 
a une bonne syncere & entiere pacification desditz troubles les choses 
qui sensuyvent. 
Car les treshumbles reqt^s presentees a sa Mate ^e la part de la Royne de 
Navarre et de Messeigneurs les Princes il est manifeste que le but de lad. dame 
et desd. Seigneurs Princes n'est et ne fut onques d'oster au Roy sa couronne 
comme ilz ont este calumniez, mais d'entretenir le vray pur et libre sendee 
de Dieu, come le Roy suyvant la reqte des estatz la accorde a tous ses subgectz. 
Nous sommes persuadez de la bonne affection que sa Mate a portee a la Roine 
de Navarre et a Messieurs les Princes au paravant que ceulx qui aujourdhuy 
soubz le nom du Roy oppriment le Royaulme eussent chasse d'aupres de sa 
personne tous ses meilleurs et plus loyaux conseillers et mesmes qu'au paravant 
ces dernieres troubles nonobstant les fausses accusations calumnies et im- 
postures dont on avoit charge lad. Dame Roine et Messieurs les Princes, ce 
neantmoins n'avoient tant sceu faire ceulx de Guyse que de faire oublier a sa 
Mate son bon naturel, tellement que personne na doubte si sa Mate ge fust 
conduicte selon sa bonne inclination que sa bonne affection ne se fust tousjours 
monstree en leur endroict et eussent este traictez comme bons et prochains 
parens loyaulx subgectz et tresobeissans serviteurs. Toutesfois il est cogneu 
notoirement que par les mauvaises praticques desquelles ont use ceulx qui 
sont aupres de sa Mate lad. dame Messieurs les Princes, les S^s Gentilshommes 
et autres estans a leur suyte ont este beaucoup plus cruellement traictez que 
les poures Chrestiens qui tombent entre les mains des Turcqs et Infidelles. 



568 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Ceulx de Guise ont assez faict de preuve de la bonne affection quilz ont 
a la conservation des subgectz de sa Ma^, quand par les secrettes Intelligences 
quilz ont avec la maison Despaigne et speciallement avec le Due d'Aibe depuis 
huict ans en ca ils ont faict mourir la meilleure partie de la noblesse et autres 
subgectz de lune et lautre religion et mesmement les plus loyaulx & affectionnez 
au service de sa Ma^. Et quant a aymer la noblesse il est certain que ce sont 
ceulx qui la haissent et craignent le plus et apres eux les gens de lettres comme 
ceulx qui naturellement sont ennemys de la tyrannic, et de lusurpation quilz 
ont voulu faire de la couronne et en particulier des comtez d' Anion et de 
Provence, et que ne promections jamais lalienation de la souveraincte de 
Bar, que ceulx de Guise ont essaie de praticquer depuis la mort du Roy Henry 
pluses fois et on scait encores ce quilz ont faict demierement. Et quant au 
repos public il est certain que la paix et le Cardinal de Lorraine ne peuvent 
loger en ung mesme royaulme. 

Premierement que la memoire de toutes choses passees demeurera 

esteincte & supprimee comme de choses non jamais advenues Quil 

ne sera loizible ne permis en quelque temps ne pour quelque occasion 

que ce soit den faire jamais mention ne proces en quelque court 

jurisdiction que ce soit ne aillelirs, et a ceste fin sera impose silence 

a ses procureurs generaulx en toutes ses courtz de parlemens & 

leurs substitudz, sera aussy defendu a toutes personnes princes d'en 

renouveller la memoire ny en faire reproche sur peine destre puniz 

comme infracteurs de paix & perturbateurs du repos public. 

Semblables choses nous ont este promises deux foix mais les courtz de 

parlemens et autres juges inferieures n'ont laisse de faire mourir ceulx quilz 

ont peu apprehender, le peuple a massacre par tout ou ils a este le plus fort, 

les assassinats ont este tous publics, de justice ils ny en a point eu les injures 

plus grandes que jamais ce mot de rebelle a este familier en la bouche des 

Gouvemeurs des Provinces et singulierement des soubz Gouvemeurs dont la 

France est infectee, et consequemment des pctis, partant pour effectuer ceste 

promesse est de besoing que sa Ma^e pourveoie a la justice et a son prive conseil 

comme elle seulle le peult et doibt faire autrement ces promesses sont trappes 

et pieges. 

Que tous arrestz sentences jugemens & procedures faictes en quelque 

Court et devant quelques juges que ce soit durant les presens troubles 

& aux precedens pour raison des choses passees durant ou a cause 

desditz troubles a lencontre des dessusditz ou aucuns deceulx seront 

mis a neant cassez & revoquez. 

II nest rien si naturel que tous affaires soyent dissoutes par le moyen quel 

les ont este assemblees et partant est de besoing que les courtz qui ont faict la 

playe facent la guarison donnans arrestz et sentences contraires a leurs premiers 

arrestz et sentences, aillent en personne despendre les effigiez et ossemens 



APPENDICES 569 

des executez ou en efiigie ou apres leur mort pour le moins en semblable sol- 
lemnite quilz les ont executez comme il fut faict a Rouen en la personne des 
seigneurs de Harcourt et de Granville Et quant a ceulx qui ont este executez 
de faict que punition exemplaire soit faicte des luges qui ont este autheurs 
de telles sentences mesmes contre le vouloir et intention du Roy et que les 
heritiers des defunctz prennent leurs interestz sur les biens desd. criminelz. 

Quilz ou aucuns d'eulx ne pourront jamais estre recerchez pour 

raison des praticques ou intelligences quilz pourront auoir eves avec 

Princes Potentatz Communautez ou personnes privees estrangeres 

ny a cause des traictez ou contractz quilz pourroient avoir faictz 

ou passez avec eulx pour raison des choses concemans lesdictz 

troubles & dependances diceulx dont le Roy les a entierement des- 

chargez et leur en baillera toutes tres & seuretez qui seront a ceste 

fin necessaires en la meilleure & plus autentique forme que faire se 

pourra. 

Ce seroit a ceulx de Guise a prendre lettres d'abolition pour avoir eu 

secrettes praticques avec les antiens ennemys de la couronne, les avoir mis 

dedans le Royaulme pour parvenir a leur damnable desseing dusurper le 

Royaulme et au contraire ceulx qui en une extreme necessite ont eu recours 

a leurs antiens amys et confederez pour secouer ce joug et mainitenir le Roy 

et la Couronne meritent toutes sortes de louanges et de recognoissance pour 

leur grande valleur & pour tant de pertes. 

Que par le benefice de ceste paix tons les dessusditz seront remis 

Sr reintegrez en leurs honneurs & biens pour diceulx jouir eulx leurs 

enfans heritiers successeurs ou ayans cause paisiblement et sans 

aucun empeschement. 

Cest article ne peult avoir lieu si ce que est diet cy dessus sur lar^e ^ nest 

execute. Item puis que ceulx qui ont tue de sang froid Monseigneur le Prince 

de Conde et contre la loy de la guerre. Ceulx qui ont emprisonne Monsieur 

d'Andelot et ce trahistre qui a tue le s"^ de Mouy ont este hault esleuez et 

renumirez Messieurs leurs enfans ne peuvent estre remis en leurs honneurs 

sinon que punition exemplaire soit faicte de si pemicieux hommes de leurs 

complices & adherens que si Dieu mesmes a desja faict la vangeance d'aucuns 

(comme il la faict) si leur memoire nest condamne. 

Et pour gratifier particuherement lesditz Princes & ceulx de la 
noblesse qui auront estatz charges & pensions de sadite Ma'^ le Roy 
les remectra en sesditz estatz charges et pensions pour en jouir ainsy 
comme dessus est dit. 
Cest article ne tend qu'a diviser les grands davec les petis pour les opprimer 
les ungs apres les autres. 

Et quant au faict de la religion le Roy, leur permectra de demeurer 
& vivre paisiblement dedans son Royaulme en entiere liberte de 



570 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

leur conscience sans estre recerchez en leurs maisons ny les abstreindre 
a faire chose pour le regard de ladite religion contre leur volunte 
Et encores pour plus grande seurete sadite Ma'e leur accordera deux 
villes lesquelles le s"" de Biron leur nommera, dedans lesquelles ilz 
pourront faire tout ce que bon leur semblera et quilz vouldront sans 
estre recerchez. Et neantmoins en chascune desdites villes sadite 
Mate aura ung Gentilhomme capable & ydoine pour avoir loeil a ce 
quil ne soit faict chose qui contrevienne a son auctorite & repos de 
son Royaulme et qm mainctienne ung chacun en paix et repos Ne 
voulant sadite Mate quil y ayt au reste de tout son Roiaulme aucun 
ministre ne quil soit faict autre exercice de rehgion que de la sienne. 
Dautant que cest ar'^le est le noud de la matiere il est aussy captieux en 
toutes ses parties. 

Premierement il est couche si a propos quon ne scavoit recueillir sil s'entend 
seulement des Princes et de la noblesse oubien generallement de tous Et on 
scait comment on sest servy par cydevant de telles facons de parler. 

Secondement il y a de la contradiction manifeste en ce quil est diet expres, 
quil y aura entiere Hberte de conscience et neantmoins quil ny aura point de 
ministres en France. 

Tiercement de limpossibilite, car quelle pent estre la liberte de la conscience 
ou il n'y a point dexercice de rehgion ? Le Cardinal de Lorraine pense que 
liberte de conscience et stupidite de conscience soit ung. Or la hberte de 
conscience est en la liberte de la foy qui est en Christ comment se peut engendrer 
entretenir et augmenter la foy que par la parolle delaquelle estans privez il ne 
reste aucune liberte. Le Cardinal se trompe en ce quil pense que la liberte 
gise a avoir conge de n'aller point a la Messe, de n'aller point aux pardons et 
choses semblables, mais la liberte de la conscience ne gist point a ne point 
faire ce qui est mauvais, mais a faire ce qui est bon. La verite diet qui oyt 
ma parolle et qui la meet en effect est bien heureux. II sensuyt doncq que 
qui ne loyt point est malheureux II ne dit point qui ne va point a la Messe. 
En somme notre liberte nest point composee de negatives, mais fondee sur 
propositions affirmatives quil fault faire. Item si le Cardinal ne peut com- 
prendre quelle est ceste liberte des Chrestiens, comme il ne peult ne luy ne 
quiconques soit en ce monde sil n'est regendre denhault, au moins peult il 
bien entendre que quand nous n'avons moyen de contracter manages, baptizer 
les enfans, et enterrer noz mortz que nous n'avons aucune liberte en noz con- 
sciences, mainctenant quil me dise comment (ayans en horre'^ les actes de la 
papaute) nous pouvons faire ces choses estans privez du ministere de la parolle 
de Dieu, et consequemment de pasteurs legitimes, mais il semble que nous 
sommes comme luy cest adire que la religion ne nous est que jeu et que nous 
serions contentz que tous le monde vinst en Atheisme comme il est certain 
que si cest ar'^'e avoit lieu avant peu de temps la France seroit pleine de Payens 



APPENDICES 571 

et en peu de temps il seroit a craindre comme desja il est de trop, que ce mauvais 
conseil ne fust dommageable a ceulx qui I'ont donne et mesmes a tout lestat 
en general. 

Quartement, cest ar^ie est ung piege pour attrapper tous ceulx qu'on 
vouldra exposer a la mercy dung juge de village, car jusques on sestendra ceste 
liberte ? Si ung homme prie soir et matin ou a quelque autre heure du jour, 
on dire quil aura faict acte de ministere comme on trouvera desja assez de 
gens condamnez voire a la mort et executez pour avoir prie Dieu, si on chante 
ung pseaume en sa maison ou en sa bouticque on en sera recerche car on dira 
comme il a este desja souvent juge que cest autre exercice que de la religion 
du Roy cest adire de ceulx qui sont prez de sa personne qui toutesfois nen ont 
point du tout. Si on lit en la bible ou en quelque bon livure si ung maistre 
apprend a ung enfant a lire dedans ung nouveau testament, si on luy apprend 
son oraison en francoys on sera en peine. Brief, accorder aux hommes une 
telle liberte de conscience est autant comme qui osteroit les fers a ung homme 
et neantmoins on luy osteroit aussy tous les moyens de recouvrer pain et vin 
et le laisseroit en mourir de faim. 

Finallement quant aux villes qui nommera le S"" de Biron, on verra quils 
nommera ou des bicocques ou sil nomme de bonnes villes que ce sera pour 
praticquer de les aliener de la cause commune soubz lumbre de quelque pro- 
messe; mais quoy quil y ayt, comment se peult accorder que dedans ces villes on 
fera ce quon vouldra, et quil y ayt ung Gentilhomme qui y commande, il est 
aise a juger que mectre ung homme de Commandement dedans une place, 
cest lavoir a se devotion toutesfois et quantes et quand cela ne sera point, 
quest ce que deux villes en France quelques grandes et fortes quelles puissent 
estre les forces estans une fois rompues et divisees, et mesmes en ung si grand 
Royaulme quelle commodite pourroient apporter deux villes a ceulx qui en 
seroient infiniment eslougnez, mais le but de tout cela est faictes comme en Ian 
1568, et on vous traictera aussy de mesmes. 

Et quant aux offices de justice finances & autres inferieurs actendu 
que depuis la privation faicte diceulx par decretz & ordonnances 
de justice suyvant les edictz du Roy autres ont este pourv^euz en 
leurs places et sont aujourdhuy en exercice diceulx. Que largent 
qui en est provenu a este despendu & emploie pour soustenir les 
fraiz de la guerre le Roy ne les peut aucunement restituer ne retracter 
lexecution de ses edictz pour ce regard Actendu mesmes les grandes 
plainctes & demandes que font ceulx du clerge de sondict Royaulme 
& autres ses subgectz catholiques pour avoir reparation du dommage 
par eulx souffert tant en leurs biens qu'en la desmolition des eglises 
et maisons du patrimoine dicelles par tous les endroictz de sondit 
royaulme a lencontre de ceulx qui ont faict lesdites demolitions & 
dommages Ausquelz ne pourroit justement desnier de faire droict & 



572 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

justice a lencontre de ceulx centre lesquelz ilz vouldroient pretendre 
sil falloit entrer en cognoissance de cause et reparation des dommages 
souffertz dune part & dautre. 
II ne s'est jamais veu et ne se peult faire sinon par une tirannie extreme 
(ce que nous n'estimons pas que sa Mate face jamais) qu'en France les ofi&ciers 
n'ayant forfaict soient deposez de leur charge, si que quand les Roys lont 
voulu procurer les particuliers ont tousjours en droict gaigne leur cause contre 
les Roys mesmes. Et quant a largent despense il y a assez de moyens recouvrer 
argent par la vendition des biens temporelz des ecclesiastiques Car puisque 
nous ne sommes point autheurs des troubles, ains deffendeurs en necessite 
extreme, que ceulx qui se pouvoient bien passer de la guerre et vivre en paix, 
en leurs maisons, puis quilz ont tant desire la guerre quilz ne comoyent entre 
chose doibvent aussy en porter la folle enchere comme encores silz ne nous 
font autre raison nous esperons que Dieu la nous fera et en briefe Que si il 
estoit question d'entrer en compensation il se trouvera que nous avons souffert 
infinies pertes plus que les autheurs des troubles, en quoy quil y ayt tant de 
gens et bien meurdriz par des juges et officiers massacrez par le peuple depuis 
la derniere pacification tant de femmes violees par les gens de guerre et mesmes 
des plus remarquez qui cela surpasse toute perte & que toutes fois nous esperons 
que Dieu ne laissera pour impuny quoy que les vivans en rien ne regardans 
point aux jugemens quil en a desja faictz sur les plus mauvais d'entreulx qui 
se jouoient ainsy de son Nom de Ma^^ glorieuse. 

Voulant sadite Mate pour lobservation des choses susdites avec toute 

bonne foy 8z syncerite leur bailler toutes leurs seuretez qui sont en 

son pouvoir et quilz luy vouldront honnestement & raisonnablement 

requerir lesquelles seuretez le Roy fera esmoUoguer & passer par ses 

courtz de parlemens & autres juges quil appartiendra. 

Les bons subgectz (telz que nous sommes) n'ont point acoustume de 

demander les formes de seuretez cest a sa Mate de nous les donner bonnes et 

asseurees, et puis quil na este en sa puissance de nous garder sa foy il nous 

donnera sil luy plaist les moyens de nous garentir contre ceulx qui la vouldroient 

eufraindre en notre endroict, et quant a ses courtz de parlemens nous ne 

pensons pas que pendant quelles serons composees de telles gens quelles sont 

quil nous garde foy et administre justice veu quilz sont noz parties formelles. 

Veut et entend sadite Mate que les dessusditz reciproquement pour 

luy rendre la fidele obeissance quilz luy doibvent ayent a se departir 

de toute alliance, confederation, et association quilz, ont avec les 

Princes Potentatz ou Communautez estrangeres hors du Roiaulme 

pareillement de toutes intelligences praticques Sz associations quilz 

ont dedans & dehors icelluy. 

Quilz ne feront aucunes assemblees contribution ne cullettes de deniers 
sans expresse permission du Roy declaree par ses lettres patentes. 



APPENDICES 573 

Quant a ces deux ar^es sa Ma'e scait que nous n'avons rien promis que 
nous n'ayons tenu ce que nous ferons encores la paix estant bien asseurer. 

Quentieront & feront sortir hors sondit Roiaulme dedans ung moys 

apres la conclusion de ladite Pacification par le chemin qui leur sera 

prescript par sadite Mate sans fouUe ne oppression de ses subgectz tons 

estrangers estans a leur service, et conviendront avec eux de leur 

paiement a leurs propres coustz & despens. Et a ceste fin leur don- 

nera le Roy telle permission quil sera besoing pour entr'eulx leuer 

les sommes qui leur seront necessaires. 

Cest arcie est impossible en toutes ses parties, car les estrangers ne pouvent 

en ung mois se retirer, ilz ne peuvent ny ne doibvent sortir par le chemin qui 

leur sera prescript sinon quilz veulent se precipiter eulx mesmes a leur mort, 

ce que nous ne leur conseilleront jamais, plustost choisirons nous de mourir 

avec eulx. Et davantage ilz sont assez fortz pour se faire voye par ou bon 

leur semblera. Si nous promectons que les subgectz de sa Ma'e ne soient 

point fouUez cest une trappe, car nestant aucunement en notre puissance de 

laccomplir ceulx de Guise diront que nous avons rompu la paix. II ne nous 

est non plus possible de les paier de noz deniers particuliers car la cruaute de 

noz ennemys nous a oste tous les moyens que nous avions au paravant et 

mesmes dedans ung mois une telle cuillette ne sa pourroit faire et quand elle 

le seroit il nous souvient comment nous fusmes traictez a Auxerre et qui est le 

pis les particuliers ne vouldront contribuer, se souvenans bien comme ilz ont 

este traictez pour avoir contribue aux troubles precedens suyvant les tres 

patentes de sa Ma'e. 

Laisseront aussy les armes et separeront toutes leurs autres forces 
tant de pied que de cheval par mer & par terre se retireront chacun 
en leurs maisons qon bon leur semblera incontinent apres la con- 
clusion de ladite paix pour la ou ilz seront vivre paisiblement. 
Les seuretez de la paix estans bonnes se departiront voluntairement des 
armees, mais ilz se ressentent de plus de dix mil hommes des leurs qui ont 
este cruellement meurdriz aux dernieres troubles obeissans a ung semblable 
article que cestuy Partant il est necessaire que sa Ma^e y pourveoie. 

Remectront entre les mains du Roy ou de ceulx quil commectra les 
villes chasteaux & places quliz detiennent pour le present et en feront 
sortir les forces quilz y ont y dellaissant semblablement lartillerie 
& autres munitions qui sont en icelles, au pouvoir de ceulx qu'ordon- 
nera sadite Ma'e. 

Et generallement restitueront de bonne foy a sadite Ma'^ ou a ceulx 
quil commectra toutes les choses a elle appartenantes qui se trouveront 
encores en nature soit es villes & places quilz tiennent ou autres 
lieux quilz soient ou par mer ou par terre. Faict a Anglers le iiije jour 
de Feburier 1570. Ainsy signe CHARLES et au dessoubz De 
Laubespine. 



574 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Quant a ces deux ar^es la paix estant asseuree feront ce quilz promectront. 
Toutesfois lexperience a monstre a Orleans, Auxerre, Autun, Vallence, Mont- 
pellier et autres villes comment sil ne plaist a sa Ma'^ de pourveoir a lestat de 
gouvemeurs de gens dautre humeur que ceulx qui ont este commis au gouveme- 
ment des places depuis les secondes troubles il seroit beaucoup plus expedient 
aux poures habitans des villes de mourir vaillamment a la breche que de voir 
devant leurs yeulx les horribles meschancetez quilz ont veues, et qui sont telles 
que nous avons honte seuUement de les nommer. 

[Not signed] 
[Endorsed in Burghley^s hand] 8 Martii 1569 (1570). 
Respons to the articles of the 
fr. Kes answer to the Q. of 
Navarrs Deputees. 



APPENDIX XXI 

[P. 396, n. 2] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 
Elizabeth, Vol. CXV, No. 990 
Distribution des gouvemementz d'aulcunes Provences en 
France dernierement faict par les Protestantz et Premierement 

Le Segneur de Montbrun general pour le pais de daulphine et Provence, 

Monser de S' Romain general pour le duche de Nismes, Montpellier. 
Mande, Vivaretz, Uses, et le puis avec 600 livres en pention per chascun moys 
200 harquebusiers et trois cornettes de Cavallerie. 

Le vicounte de Paulin pour les duches d'alby, Castres, S' Pol, Carcas- 
sonne, Narbonne, Bessiers, Aix et Lodesve. 

Le S^ de Serignac Montauban et tout le pais bas, Quercy, Agenois, diocese 
de Thoulouse, Rioux, La Nur Mereboix et Albert. 

Le Cap: de Guynieres pour les dioceses de Palmes Costrance Comiges, 
et toute la counte de Foix. 

Le Baron darroy les pais de Ricaon, Besomiris, Cascogne et Armignac. 

Le Viconte de Pimal toute la seneschalce d'avergne. 

Le Visconte de Gordon Loyer et le hault guibry Limosin et leurs adjacentes. 

Laissant lentier sang aux Si's (je la Noe et de Montgomery des affaires qui 
concerneront la Rochelle lesquieux pourvoieront de choses aux gouveme- 
mentz des paix de Guienne, Poictou, Torenne, Le Meine, Bourgoigne Bre- 
taigne, Normandie et autres adjacentes. 

A este en oultre ordonne par I'assemblee generalle desdits protestantz 
que chascun desdict chefs comandiria en son departement quilz prendrent tous 
les deniers du Roy. Item tous les revenus des ecclesiastiques cotiseront de 



APPENDICES 575 

gre ceulx de la Religion selon I'exigence des affaires, et les Catholiques de 
gre ou de force, et contrainderont le solvable pour insolvable. 

[Not signed] 
[Endorsed] Distribution de provences 
par les protestans. 



APPENDIX XXII 

[P. 399, n. i] 

ITINERAIRE DE MONTGOMERY EN GASCOGNE 

Pendant L'Annee 1569^ 

8 juin. Quitte Nontron, nanti des pleins pouvoirs de la reine de Navarre 

(France protestante). 

21 juin. Arrive a Castres et y organise I'expedition du Beam. 

27 juillet. Part de Castres a midi pour se rendre en Beam (Memoires de 
Jacques Caches. Lettre de Montgomery a Jeanne d'Albret). 

28 juillet. Occupe Mazeres, en Foix, et traverse I'Ariege (Memoires de J. 

Caches.) 

II jranchit I'Ariege probablement au pont d'Atderive, puis le Salat. II 
etait le i'^ aoUt a Monibrun; le 2, ay ant passe sans encombre la Garonne au 
pont de Miramont (Courteault, Blaise de Montluc, p. 544). : 

2 aout. Pille Saint-Caudens (Durier, Huguenots en Bigorre). 

5 et 6 aout. Traverse la plaine de Tarbes et loge a Pontac, le 6 au soir (ibid.; 
Bordenave, Histoire de Beam, p. 259). 

7 aout. Passe le Gave a Coarraze (Bordenave, loc. cit.). 

9 aout. Entre a Navarrenx (Lettre du 11 aout). 

II aout. Quitte Navarrenx et arrive sous les murs d'Orthez vers midi (Bor- 
denave, p. 266; Lettre du 11 aout). 
12-14 aout. Assiege Orthez. 

15 aout. "Signe la capitulation. 

16 aout. Occupe la ville, ou il a une entrevue avec le comte de Gramont 

(Bordenave, p. 276). 
18-19 aout. Prend Artix et fait massacrer les freres mineurs du couvent {ibid., 
p. 280). 

22 aout. Fait rendre des actions de grace a Pau {ibid., p. 280). 

23 aout. Sejourne a Pau (Lettre a Jeanne d'Albret). 
24-29 aout. Oleron, Mauleon de Soule. 

30 aout. Entre en Bigorre, par le Vic-Bilh. 

31 aout. Traverse Maubourguet. 

I From Communay, Les huguenots dans le Beam et la Navarre, p. 175. 
The italicized portions are further details which I have added. — J. W. T. 



576 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

jer septembre. S'empare de Tarbes et met tout a feu et a sang (Durier, 

Huguenots en Bigorre). 
2-4 septembre. A Tarbes. 

5 septembre. Quitte cette ville (Lettre a Jeanne d'Albret), pour aller en 

Chalosse (Bordenave, p. 286). 

6 septembre. Occupe et ranjonne Marciac (Lettre).^ 

7 septembre. Entre a Aire-sur-Adour (Lettre). 
II septembre. A Grenade-sur-Adour (Lettre).^ 

I2~i8 septembre. Capitulation de Sainte Sever (Bordenave, p. 287) et Mont 
de Marsan vers Montault et Mugron deld VAdour (Courteault p. 553 n. 2). 

19 septembre. Traverse Amou {ibid)J 

20-28 septembre. A Orthez (Courteault, p. 555) . Va a Navarrens, ou il ordonne 
I'execution de Bassillon, gouverneur de cette ville. 

28 septembre. Arrive a Salies de Beam (Lettre). '^ 
1-6 octobre. Sejoume a Salies, oil il reorganise la justice. 

10 octobre. Ouvre le synode de Lescar et part pour la Bigorre. 

13 octobre. Occupe Betplan (Huguenots en Bigorre). 

14-17 octobre. Etablit son camp a Lahitole {ibid.). 

18 octobre. Quitte Lahitole et se dirige vers Marciac {ibid.). 

21 octobre. Arrive a Nogaro (Lettre), qu'il pille et brule (Huguenots en 

Bigorre). 

22 octobre. Traverse Eauze (Comment.). 

3 novembre. Occupe Condom (Huguenots en Bigorre), d'ou il ecrit aux 

consuls d'Auch. 
3-17 novembre. Fait des courses dans I'Armagnac; menace Auch et Lombez; 

ravage Samatan {ibid.). 
17 novembre. Rentre a Condom (Dupleix), d'ovi il ecrit aux consuls de Bag- 

neres (Huguenots en Bigorre). 
Decembre. Faict sa jonction avec I'armee des princes. 



APPENDIX XXIII 

[P. 402, n. i] 

ARCHIVES NATIONALES 
K 1,515, PIECE No. 23 A 

[Montauben, Janvier 1570.] 
\Au dos] Proclamation des Rebelles de France. 
De par Messeigneurs les Princes de Navarre et de Conde. 
II est tres expressement commande et enjoinct a tous gentilzhommes, 
capitaines, soldatz faisans profession de la religion reformee non enrollds 

1 Cf. Courteault, p. 553 n. 2. 

2 Cf. Les huguenots en Beam, p. 64. 3 Ihid., pp. 65, 68. 4 Ihid., p. 68. 



APPENDICES 577 

soubz les enseignes et compaignies retenues pour la garde et deffence des villes 
tenues soubz I'obeyssance du Roy et desdictz Sieurs Princes,de in continent 
et sans delay se rendre en leur armee pour y estre employez au service de 
Dieu et du Roy sellon leur degre et quallite, et ce, sur peyne d'estre tenuz 
pour ennemys de la cause de Dieu et de la religion. Enjoinct aux gouver- 
neurs des villes ou ilz seront sans expresse licence desdictz S'"^ Prirrces, d'iceulx 
faire vuyder et desloger promptement, deffendre leur estre bailie logis ne 
vivres et les soldatz desvalizes et desgrades de leurs armes et chevaulx. Sy 
ont lesdictz Sieurs Princes estroictement deffendu et inhibe a toutz capitaines, 
soldatz et aultres estans de la presente armee de brusler, desmolir ny ruyner 
aulcuns chasteaulx, maisons ne ediffices apartenans aux gentilzhommes de 
quelque religion qu'ilz soyent, ne aussy des paisans et peuble estans ez bourez 
et villages du plat pais. Et d'aultant que les Courtz de Parlement et aultres 
officiers de la justice et conseil des villes, principalement ceulx de la ville de 
Tholouze se sont renduz, par une hajTie trop cruelle et incapable, refracteurs, 
voyre directement oppozes a la publication et entretenement de la pacifica- 
tion demierement establye en ce royaulme, jusques a faire mourir inhumaine- 
ment et ignominieusement le Sieur Rappin, maistre d'hostel du Sieur feu prince 
de Conde, nostre tres chere et tres ame oncle et tres honnore seigneur et pere, 
centre toute foy et seurete publique a luy octroyee tant par le edict de pacifica- 
tion que par expres sauf conduict et passeport a luy bailies especiallement par 
Sa Majeste aux fins d'apporter et faire publyer ledict edict de la pacification; 
oultre le cruel meurtre contre les loix et debvoirs de la guerre commis en la 
personne du baron de Castelnau et aultres gentilzhommes, capitaines et 
soldatz prins en guerre durant les troubles. Lesdictz Sieurs Princes, pour 
reprimer et faire cesser de leur pouvoir telles inhumanitez non ouyes entre les 
plus barbares nations de la terre, et, par le chastiment des perturbateurs de la 
paix et foy publicque, parvenir a quelque tranquillite stable entre ceulx qui 
desirent la seurete et conservation de cest Estat et coronne de France, ont 
habandonne en proye, pillage et feu toutes maisons, edifices, bestail, meubles, 
danrees et biens quelzquonques qui se trouveront appartenir aux presidents 
conseilliers de ladicte Court de Parlement de Tholouze et aultres lieux, justiciers 
et administrateurs et generallement officiers de ladicte ville, pappistes ou 
atteistes; et pour cest effect permis aux capitaines, soldatz et aultres quelz- 
conques estans en ceste armee uzer de tons lesdictz actes d'hostillite a 
I'endroict des dessusdictz. Deffendant tres expressement mesfaire en aulcune 
fafon, ains conserver de tout leur pouvoir les maisons et biens appartenans a 
ceulx qui font profession de la religion reformee, de quelque qualite ou con- 
dition qu'ilz soyent Et, afin que nul ne puisse ignorer lesdictes deffences 
et provision, ensemble les causes et occasions d'icelle, ont volu ces presentes 
estre cryees a cry publicque tant en la ville de Montauban que en la presente 
armee. 

Faict a Montauban, au mois de Janvier mil cinq cens soixante dix. 



578 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

APPENDIX XXIV 

[P. 412, n. 2] 

ARCHIVES NATIONALES 

K 1,515, PIECE No. 68 

[11 mars 1570.] 

[Ati dos, propria manu] Lo que se dixo de parte de los Principes de Beame y 
Conde a Biron. 

Dicho y pronunciado a los XI de margo, a tres horas despues de mediodia, 
delante de Mosi^es los Principes y Almirante, gentileshombres y cabegas de lex- 
ercito de los dichos Senores Principes. 

Mos de la Cage ha dicho a Mos de Biron que tenia mandamiento de 
todos los Senores y gentileshombres del exercito para dezirle: 

Que, como ellos loan infinitamente a Dios por la gracia que ha hecho al 
Rey de le tocar el corafon e inclinarle a la paz tan necessaria, assi davan muy 
humildes gracias a Su Magestad de la buena voluntad que tenia de les estender 
sus brafocs y abrajallos como buenos y fieles subditos, mas, porque estiman 
y creen que la privacion de los exercicios de la religion es p9,ra ellos mas dura 
muerte que ninguna que se les pudiesse dar, supplican muy humilmente a 
Su Magestad les otorgue un medio con que acquieten sus consciencias para 
con Dios, al qual si se mostrassen desleales, Su Magestad no podria esperar 
que ellos le fuessen muy fieles, porque quien no es fiel a Dios no lo puede ser 
a los hombres, que no es libertad de consciencia estar sin palabra de Dios, sino 
una insoportable servidumbre, que si huvieran consentido de vivir en esta 
licencia Uamandola libertad de consciencia, Su Magestad con razon devria 
tomar resolucion de no se fiar jamas dellos y de no los tener jamas en estima 
de hombres de bien. 

Que Dios dize que sobre nosotros ha embiado la muerte, es a saber que 
cien muertes nos vienen mas a cuenta que alexamos voluntariamente del 
derecho camino de la vida etema. 

En lo demas dize que ellos havian (con muy grande desplazer suyo) sido 
forfados por muchas causas de emplear sus vidas por defender a los que 
avian sido sus defensores, cosa que no les devia ser imputada a mal, ni delante 
de Dios, ni delante de los hombres, sino solo a aquellos que contra justicia y 
contra las leyes han siempre oprimido sus consciencias y sus honrras y sus 
vidas. Al presente, dessearian por quanto su dever les obliga, podellos 
emplear en el servicio de Su Magestad y cumplimiento de su Estado, en pre- 
juyzio de aquellos que se reyan de sus miserias comunes y esperavan dello 
provecho. 

Por el particular de Mos^ de Biron, el dize que todos sentian una grande 
obligacion para con el, por la buena intencion que mostrava al acrescenta- 
miento del reposo publico, que si fuesse en su mano de le poder mostrar quanto 



APPENDICES 579 

lo estimavan, el veria en lo que tenian y estimavan aquellos que, como el, no 
dependian de alguna particularidad, mas de la sola voluntad del Rey y de la 
consideracion de la utilidad publica; que el Rey no podia hazer election de 
senor de su Corte mas agradable a toda la compania ni mas proprio para la 
execucion divina entan sancta impressa, en la qual rogava a Dios le Uegasse a 
effecto, de manera que ellos viessen presto un buen fin que fuesse a gloria de 
Dios y contentamiento de Su Magestad y reposo de sus consciencias y alegria 
de todos sus subditos. 

Finalmente le dixo que ellos quedavan persuadidos que, como el avia 
valerosamente aventurado su vida en campana por les hazer mucho mal sin 
razon, agora con razon el emplearia sus officios y buenos medios para les pro- 
curar el bien que desseavan, sin el qual podian menos passar que sin el pan 
que comian ordinariamente. 

A loqual Mos de Biron respondio lo mas sabia y graciosamente que fue 
possible, dandoles siempre seguridad del desseo que Su Magestrd tenia de 
hazer paz, y representandoles el alegria que ternia de representar a Su Magestad 
las buenas razon es que el les avia oydo, y -hazerle testimonio del buen pro- 
posito en que todos en general y en particular estavan de querer dar a Su 
Magestad la obediencia que le era devida, y que este era solo el medio por 
el qual podia Su Magestad ser vencido. En fin, el uso de muy honestos agrade- 
scimientos, y assi mismo dio seguridad de emplear sus buenos officios en un 
negocio que el creya havia de causar tanta utilidad al Rey y a sus subditos.^ 



APPENDIX XXV 

[P. 413, n. i] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. CXII, No. 693, j 
[Extraict des Lettres du S^ card^^ de Lorraine] 
Quant a la paix discessum est re infesta, qui nous faict esperer bien. Et 
se reassemblent a cest heure tant de grandes personnaiges mesmes messieurs 
de Conseil de Paris. Chacun y fera & dira son opinion et oyra parler le Roy 
ainy chacun en pourra dire a cueur ou verts. Les offres que leur auroent este 
faictez cestoient les villes de la Rochelle Sancerre & Montauban usque ad 
biennium ut civitates refugii sans tenir offices ny benefices. Et que les haultz 
justiciers & plains fiefs de haubert en Normandie ne seroient empesches ny 
recherches faisant dedans leurs maisons & ceulx presant tantum tout ce que 

^ The above document was sent by Biron to M. de Fourquevau.x, French 
ambassador in Spain. There is an extract from the letter of Biron to Forquevaux 
translated into Spanish, same carton (K. 1,515), piece No. 69. Biron's letter is 
dated March 17, 1570, from Narbonne. 



580 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

bon leur sembleroient en leur religion alibi nusquam itaque ilz ont demande 
temps de deliberer & feront respons dedans six sepmaines. Ce Chateaubriant 
ce iiije May 1570. 

[Enclosed in a letter by Sir Henry N orris to Sir William Cecil from Paris, 
May 24, 1570] 

APPENDIX XXVI 

[P. 417, n. 3] 

ARCHIVES NATIONALES 

K. 1,515, PICEE No. 118 

[Au dos, alia manu] Copia de carta del Nuncio a Su Magestad. De Madrid 
al Escurial, a 26 de Junio 1570. 

Para escrivir a Francia, como se hizo. Lo de Mos. de Fox. 

Copia di una lettera, che il Nuntio scrisse a S. Mt^ Cat^a.] 

Mi e doluto assai intendere che V. M'^ Cat^a- senta qualche indispositione 
di stomaco, il che deve ser residue de la incomodita del camino. II Signor 
Dio la mantenga sana longamente, con ogni contento et felicita. 

Per le ultime lettere d'ltalia ch'io trovai in Madrid, quali sono di 17 de 
maggio, S. S'^ mi avvisa d'havere inteso che la Regina di Francia sta in animo 
di far cancelliere di quel regno di Francia Mons^ di Foys, hora Imbasciatore 
in Venetia. Et perche questo homo, oltre I'essere indiciato grandemente 
nel Santo Offitio de la Inquisitione di Roma e parente e depend ente da quella 
buona donna chiamata la Regina di Navarra, et e persona superba, inquieta 
di spirito, arnica di novita et discordia, et di piu si tiene offeso da Sua Santita 
per non havere consentito ch' egli vadi a Roma, et credo il medesimo sia con 
V. Mta por una causa simile di non haverlo accettato in Spagna; queste cause, 
dico, et altre che Sua Santita considera, gli da gran sospetto che, se questo 
homo fosse posto in tale administratione, la quale puo infinitamente in quel 
regno, come nel Cancellier passato s' e veduto per esperientia, non cercarebbe 
altro che di unire le volunta de queste due donne, et non solo, favorendo la 
parte ugonota, travagliare le cose di Francia (pur troppo travagliate), ma 
anchora quelle de li circunvicini, maxime nelli Stati ecclesiastici et di V. Mt^^ 
CatS^, non solo per vendetta de la offesa, et per 1' odio che a 1' uno et 1' altro 
verisimilmente porta, ma anchora per la propria inclinatione sua. Onde 
Sua Beatitudine, facendo sopra cio quello che puo per la sua parte, desidera e 
ne prega V. M^a a volere similmente cercare ogni via di impedire tale elettione. 
et quando non si possi altro, si degni scrivere a I'lmbasciatore, et vedendo 
passar inanti tal cosa, si unisca con il Nuntio, et insieme si lassino intendere 
apertamente dalla Regina che Sua Beatitudine et S. M'a Caf^a- haveranno 
per male ch' ella dia uno officio di tanta importantia in mano di persona tale 
il che non deve fare, si ella desidera di essere tenuta fautrice de la fede cattolica 
desiderosa de la grandezza et quiete del Re suo figliuo lo et della unione e'' 



APPENDICES 581 

bene de la Christianita. Spera Sua Santita che, con questo rimedio si possi 
obviare a quello inconveniente, peroche la Regina prefata mostra pure di 
havere qualche consideratione in simili attioni di non far cosa che possi con 
ragione dispiacere a Sua Santita et a V. Mta. Et perche da una parte questo 
negotio ricerca presta provisione, et da I'altra non e honesto che in questo 
tempo io dia perturbatione a V. M'a con la mia presentia, ho voluto com- 
municarla con il Cardmale, et scrivere a V. M'a Cat^^ la presente, supplicandola 
humilmente si degni farmi dare quella grata risposta che comandara ch' io 
scriva a Sua Beatitudine sopra questa materia. Et, basando reverentemente 
le regali mani a V. Mta^ prego N. S^. Dio la concervi longamente felice. 
Di Madrid, li 26 di Guigno 1570. 



APPENDIX XXVII 

[P. 422, n. i] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. CXV, No. 937, 
[The Vidame de Charters to Marshal Montmorency] 
Monseigneur, j'ay receu une lettre quil vous a pleu m'escripre pour responce 
a ce que vous avois escript par monsieur de Saragosse. lay congneu que 
pensiez que je fusses encores au lieu dont vous avois escript. Si jeuse pense 
que ma presente y eust este requise j'euse dififere tant quil vous eust pleu le me 
faire entendre Mais il vous estoit fort aise a penser que si Ion prenoit goust 
par defa a ceste negociation elle seroit adressee a monsieur le cardinal de 
Chastillon, ou a I'ambassadeur du roy. On seroit envoye quelqu'ng des 
francoys favoris. Quand a moy ie n'ay pretendu en cest affaire que le service 
du roy et de la couronne de France, et si les affaires succedoient comme je 
y voy une telle espoirance et asseurance sil estoit poursuivy diligemment. 
Le contentement que je desire ne me pouroit fuir. II est vray que je serois fort 
marry si jamais j'oyois dire que par faulte de diligence cest affaire fust demoure 
imparfaict, aussy seroit ce ung domage public oultre le particullier du prince 
au quel les premiers fruicts en appartiennent. Monsieur une lettre que jay 
receue de mons"" de Saragosse me faict entrer en soupfon et craincte que en 
atendant entre deux personnes qui ne se sont jamais veues qui ostera prenner 
le bonnet il ne se mette quelqung entre deux qui face perdre I'occasion de 
contracter une grande amitie & fort utille a la France, la quelle estant perdue 
sensuyviroit le dommage et le regret (mais en vain). Je suis bien asseure 
que larcheduc d'Austriche ne sendormira pas et ne laisera perdre I'occassion 
qui se presente a une assemblee des estatz qui se vont tenyr voire les previendra 
sil peult ne perdra pas une heure, que pendant quil voyt que la royne est 
en deffiance et doubte pour les affaires de la royne D'escosse et des differens 
quelle a avec le roy D'espaigne et quilz voyoient que I'empereur avent en 



582 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

pouppe, et quil faict des manages telz quil scavroit souhaiter. II ne se serve 
de I'occassion & faveur du temps et pendant que les amis simulez paistront 
la jeunesse animeuse et la rempliront de grande espoirance, luy prometant 
par adventure des plus grandes choses (combien quelles ne so lent pas aysees a 
trouver, et pour moy je ne les scay pas ilz prendront cest advantage sur la 
partye et renforceront leur grandeur de la puissance et faveur d'un royaulme 
qui nest point petit Et vous ose bien dire quil y a de la part de ceux en qui 
gist la resolucion de cest affaire une grande inclinacion et une grande con- 
sideracion de long service de cest ancyen serviteur et de la subjection et humili- 
acion quil a monstree de la quelle vous scavez que le sexe se delecte. Ausy 
est ce leur fafon de regner la quelle toutes veulent exercer, tant plus les roynes. 
II ne fault penser que les dificultes pour la religion puissent engendrer quelques 
difi&cultez aux capitulacions qui facent plus de retardement. Car je scay 
par la bouche de la dame et ausy par ceux qui ont sceu toute ceste negotiacion 
passee, et par ung qui y a este employe qui ne parle pour metre le beau devers 
elle nestant de ses subjects mais estranger, que la charte blanche luy a este 
donnee. Et sest contente I'Archeduc pour le faict de la religion de si peii que 
cella se doibt estimer pour rien. Davantage la consideracion de lage qui est 
plus vivill et meur donne ung beau lustre aux persuasions et jugement de xeux 
qui tendent de ce coste la. Avec ses advantages du long service et age conve- 
nable, je crains que ceux qui tiennent le party contraire ne persuadent avec 
aparence a cause du trop long silence ou froide poursuite quil y aye du con- 
temnement ou de la froideur en ceux de la France estant chose propre au sexe 
de faire plus de choses par despit que par amour est a craindre quel la froideur 
de ceste part ne soit cause de I'eschauffer et faire haster plus quelle ne fairoit 
si nestoit pour se faire regretter apres a loisir par ceulx qui se seroient portez 
trop froidement en son endroit Larticle de la lettre du gentilhomme qui vous 
porta ma lettre (qui me faict craindre que en voulant traicter de la part de la 
France avec fort grand respect et par adventure prendre I'honneur devers 
nous I'affaire nen sera pire) est quil diet que si Ion estoit asseure par deja de 
la bonne volonte de ceux de dela la mer on y pouroit entendre ce qui me semble 
estrange de vouloir qu'une ville se rende avant quelle soit sommee. II me 
semble que cest beaucoup quelle parlamente, sans avoir ouyr parler le canon. 
Et nest par peu de chose qu'estant sa principalle defence de la difference de 
laage et de linconstance de la jeunesse et la crainte destre dicy a quelques 
anees, peu aymes et mesprisee et en danger de veoir de ses yeulx aymer dautres, 
Ion luy a faict abandonner ceste contre escarppe et le corrider tellement que 
Ion peult veoir au pied de la muraille que je vous asseure nest point veue de 
flans. Des particularitez et moyens que Ion a tenue en ses approches jusques 
la jen ay dice quelque chose a ce gentilhomme qui est fort affectionne a cest 
affaire en faveur du bien de la France. Et dabondant en hayne de la grandeur 
qui se voit preparer a la maison d Autriche si elle s'impatronize de ce royaume, • 
tellement quil nest a craindre si non que la tradiuite ne donne loisir a ceux 



APPENDICES 583 

qui de long temps ont faict deseing de se saisir de ce pais de venyr au bout de 
leur intencions lesquelles sont fort favorablement receues, et croy quils jouyront 
en bref si leurs conseilz ne sont troublez par une diuersion & par obiect nouveau 
plus desirable que celuy qui ce presente Ce qui me semble estre indubitable- 
ment en la jeunesse d'un prince qui a la reputacion davoir le sens meur devant 
les ans et ausi courageux et dausy grande espoirance que prince ne soit ne de 
lage des hommes. Monsieur vous scavez trop bien combien la maisson d'Au 
triche seroit agrandie sur la maison de France si elle estoit renforcee de ce 
royaume. Et ny a point de doubte quelle ne donnast pour tousjours par cy 
apres la loy a la France et est chose seure quelle contraindroit le roy a rompre 
la paix quil a donnee a ses subiectz. Davantage si par ce mariage nest donne 
satisfaction au grand coeur de mons"^ frere du roy pour loccuper et lay donner 
matiere de faire plus grandz deseingz II ne fault point doubter que tous ceux 
qui prennent la couleur et pretexte de la religion pour advancer les moiens de la 
divissionet ruyne de la France afin d'agrandir la maison d'Autriche neproposent 
a monsieur due danjou quelques mariages qui sera au despens de la couronne de 
France si la bonne nature et amitie dentre les freres ne resiste a leur malicieux 
deseingz. Mais il ne sen scauroit proposer du quel se doive espoirer plus de gran- 
deur, non seulement a luy mais a toute la maison de France en gaignant le dessus 
sur la maison d Autriche, la quelle veult soubz couverture & douceur du mari- 
age du roy faire avaller ceste curee & gaigner ung royaume sans ce quil luy soit 
donne empeschement et ne fault point doubter que si le mariage de larcheduc 
se faict quil ne soit en peu de temps mieulx obey que na este le roy Philippe 
et ce moiennant le danger de la religion et leur sera aise de nous donner la loy 
ou pour le mains de nous faire redoubler la ruyne de la France par division 
et guerre civille. Au contraire si ce bien est resceue pour noz princes il y 
aura bien de quoy rendre la pareille a ceux qui ont dresse tous leurs conseilz 
a procurer que la France se ruynast par une guerre civille Voyans que par 
guerres ouvertes jamais ilz n'auroient peu paruenir a leur intencion. Pour 
amour du mal quilz ont faict mons^ pouroit iustement avec forces du roy 
faveur dangleterre et moiens du prince dorenge avoir la confiscacion de la 
Flandre par droict de feodalite pour felonnie commise. Et ausy la maison 
d Autriche qui se bastit lempire hereditaire et la monarchic se trouveroit en 
ung instant deux freres roys ausy puissans lun que lautre pour contrepois 
de son ambition liggnez avec les princes protestans de lallemaigne et auroient 
les deux freres plus de part en lempire que ceux qui se veulent atribuer par 
la ruyne des anciennes maisons de la Germanye come de la maison de Saxe 
et des princes palatins qui sont amateurs de la couronne de France. Le 
partage de monsieur d allenfon seroit aise a trouver en la duche de Millan 
auec la faueur de lallemaigne, des Suises ausy et des princes Italliens devotieux 
de la France Et si besoing estoit por le recouvrement du royaume de Naples, 
la fave^ du Turc se trouveroit par apres ung a propos. Mons"" il ma semble 
que cela est si aparent, et si facille a persuader que puis que vous en aurez 



584 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

une fois ouvert la bouche il ny faudra plus autre soliciteur que le roy mesmes 
qui peult veoir par ce moyen son royaume luy demourer uny ses freres partagez 
Sa force telle et si grande quil ne poura estre offence ny commande par me- 
nasses qui contraignent faire la guerre a ses subiects pour complaire a ceux qui 
sont envieux de sa grandeur et n'ont peu trouver moyen de la diminuer que 
par elle mesmes. Lors ce pouroit faire une legue parfaicte entre noz princes 
& les protestans de la Germanic & les suisses De ceste facon ung grand 
plaisir viendroit a la royne de veoir tons ses enfans roys Lors leglisse galicane 
pouroit sexempter des erreurs de leglisse Romayne comme elle a faict plusieurs 
fois le temps passe, lors se pouroit faire ung concille general au quel les erreurs 
introduictes par lambition et advarice de leglisse romayne ne seroient favorisses 
et confirmees par praticques et corruptions, et en la France I'allemaigne et 
langleterre s'introduiroient une ordre et poUice de religion et unite de doctrine 
que toutes les autres provinces de la cristiente seroient contraintes dembrasser 
et finiroient les differens des subiectz avec leurs princes desquelles Sathan se 
sert pour la destruction de la Christeente et pour donner loisir au turc d'usurper 
pendant que les princes Chrestiens s'amussent a defendre les supersticions 
du Pape et maintenyr sa grande^. 

Monseigneur je me recommande treshumblement a votre bonne grace et 
vous suplie de rechef me departir de votre faveur et conseil touchant comment 
je me doibs gouverner a escripre a leurs ma^es ou non: Mons'^ je prie Dieu vous 

donner tresheureuse et treslongue vye. De la Ferte ce ^ jour doctobre 1570 

[Not signed] 

[Not addressed] 

[Endorsed in Cecil's hand] Octob. 1570. 

The vidam of Chartres to the Marshall Montmorency. 
[Enclosed by Sir Henry Norreys to Cecil, 4 November, 1570.]^ 



APPENDIX XXVIII 

[P. 426, n. 3] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. CXVIII, No. 1,174 

[Marshal Montmorency to Cecil] 

Mons"" jay este tresaise davoir entendu tant par la lettre que mauez escripte 

du xxif du passe, que par le s^ du Pui present porteur le desir qui vous avez 

de veoir bien tost affectuer ce qui a este miz en avant pour estraindre une 

' A space is left blank to the MS. 

2 This letter of Sir Henry Norris is a draft originally intended to be sent to 
the Queen, with the terms of address altered throughout — your highness altered 
to your honour, etc. 



APPENDICES 585 

bonne & ferme alliance, entre ces deux royaumes, ayant par votre prudence 

& longue experience de lestat & cours des affaires, passez & presens tresbien 

cogneu combien cella seroyt en ce temps, non seuUement convenable Mais 

aussi necessaire, pour le bien seurette & grandeur de lun & de lautre, a quoy 

de ma part je ne fauldray de tenir la main de tout mon pouvoir et de my 

employer syncerement, de cueur & daffection Vous priant a ceste cause Mons'', 

que desormays avec une bonne Intelligence & correspondance, que pour cest 

effect nous aurons ensemble Nous mections peine de vaincre les difficultez & 

rompre les obstacles. Que aucuns y mectent tons les jours, artificieusement, 

de sorte que au plustost, avecques votre bon ayde, nous y puissyons veoir 

Iheureux suites, que nous desirons. Qui toume (avec occasion, de raisonable 

tantement dune part & dautre, au repoz unyon & grandeur de ces deux 

couronnes, et a la confuzion de ceux qui sefforcent d empescher ung si bon euvre 

ce que masseurant, que vous vouldrez faire et cheminer en ce faict avec votre 

Integritte acoustumee, je ne mestandray plus avant en ce propoz. Si ce nest 

pour vous prier de creoire ced. porteur, de ce quil vous dira de ma part, come 

moy mesmes Qui surce me recomanderan tresaffectueus' a votre bonne s'' 

Priant Dieu vous donner Mons'' en parfaicte sante bonne & longue vye. De 

Gaillon le xxv^ jour de May 157 1. 

[Signed] Votre obeissant et parfaict amy 

Montmorency 
[Addressed] A Mons"" 

Mons"" de Burghley. 

[Endorsed] 20 May 15 71 

Montmorency to my L. 



APPENDIX XXIX 

[P. 448, n. 2] 
STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC 

Addenda, Elizabeth, Vol. XXI, No. 58 
[French-English Alliance, 1572] 
Good mr Hoggyns . . . .We allso here of a gret lege made w* France w^h 
ys thowghte that thereby the Frenche pretendith some further feche to serve 
there toume: God of his goodnesse kepe the noble yle of Inglande to lyve 
w^^out givynge ower much credith to forren fryndshipe. Here ys gret prepara- 
tion as ever I sawe for wt'^ in this xx dayes there wyll be x thousant horsmen 
8z: fyfty thousant fotmen: lykewyse by se 80. saylle of men of warre. Don 
Jhon de Austria ys come w* his galles to Genova & the Venecians goith outwarde 
agaynst the tourke who hath augmentyd there forces. The deuke of Savoye 
armyth for the Kynge 8000 fottemen and as it ys sayd commyth hym sellf 
in parson. Flushynge saluted the deuk de Medina cely very vyle at his com- 



586 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

mynge & burnte iij shipes of marchantes onlye by treson of a Floshynge verlet 
that came out of Spayne w* them & toke apon hym to led them in to the port 
of Sleuce & set then on grond hym sellf wente his waye yet the daye after the 
wynd beynge very good the rest of the deuks armey housted vp saylle, and in 
dyspite of the toune of Flushynge passed to the Raynykyns w* out hurt more 
then one gonner slayne The portyngall flyte of this contry lyke fallse trayters 
strok ancker before Flushynge w^h ys lyk that many thereby ar undone. The 
gensys tok off the iij shyppes that wer bomet xxvj. spaynyardes & in the toune 
honge them. Lykewyse the Spayniardes aboute xv. dayes past toke xxx 
frenche horsmen commynge to Monsse amonge wch as yt ys sayd the sone of 
monsir Mongomvrey was one who offerryd for his ransome 5000 crovmes he 
& the rest his compaynyons wer hanged at Flyford vj. dayes past so that here 
ys no favor but hangynge on both sydes. Our cuntrymen & wemen as my 
lade of Northumberland lieth at Maklynge & so doth m^ Daykeres where not 
many dayes past [two] of my 1. Setones sones wer lyk to have byn slayne in 
the tumolte w^^ standeth yet but in a mamerynge yet nowe they begyne to 
come coler & to obbey the maigestrates. The pore erle of Westmarland lieth 
at Lovayne & so doth my lade Hungerford my old knyght & otheres .... 
Thoughe I begqne, wryte I pray you to me & send yo"" letters to my 1. to Brugys 
& in so doynge I wyll wryt to you wekelye from the campe of our occurrance, 
in hast wryten this present tewsdaye the xvij of lune at Brugys 1572. 

Yo"" lovynge frende 

Thomas Parker 
[Addressed] To his lovyng fryend m^ Robert 

Hoggyns at m^ Edmunde Hoggyns 

his house in Mylke Streete give 

thes. At London. 
[Endorsed] 17 lunii 1572. 

mr Tho. Parker to m"" 

Hogans from Brugis. 



APPENDIX XXX 

[P- 457, n. 3] 
BIBLIOTHEQUE DE LTNSTITUT, COLLECTION GODEFROY 

Vol. 256, Fo. 71, RECTO (no. 39 du catalogue) 
[Le due d'Anjou a Charles IX.] 

[La Guerche, 19 Janvier 1573.] 
[Suscription, au dos] Au Roy, Monseigneur et frere. 
[Au dos, alia manu] Monseigneur, de XIX^ Janvier 1573. 
Monseigneur, par la depesche que je vous fiz hyer, je vous ay adverty 
que le S"^ de Biron m'avoit escript que, quand toutes les compaignyes de gens 



APPENDICES 587 

de pied frangoyses dont nous avons faict estat seroient la, apres avoir cemeure 
dix ou douze jours aux tranchees, il n'en scauroit rester plus hault de six mil 
hommes, et qu'il estoit necessaire d'en avoir plus grand nombre. Sur quoy 
j'avois advise d'envoyer devers Mons"" I'amyral pour avoir quarante enseignes 
de celles qui sont aupres de luy. Et estant presentement, venu devers moy 
le S"" de Beaulieu Ruze, que le S"" de Biron m'a depesche expres, tant pour 
aucunes particularitez que j'ay donne charge au S"^ de Lanconne (que j'envoye 
devers vous) vous dire, que pour m'advertir, encores que les forces y soient 
si petites qu'elles sont, qu'ilz estoient neanmoins d'adviz que je ne laissasse 
pas de m'acheminer au camp. Ce que j'ay resolu de faire et de partir demain 
de ce lieu, pour m'en aller a Chatellerault et de la a Poictiers. Et cependant je 
renvoye ledict Ruze devers ledict S"" de Biron pour me revenir trouver en chemin, 
et me rapporter au vray ce que sera survenu depuis. Et ay depesche incon- 
tinant ung courrier devers ledict S'" Amyral, pour faire partir tout aussy tost 
lesdictes quarante enseignes, ou ce qu'il me pourra envoyer, et qu'il les face 
embarquer a Moyssac, d'ou elles peulvent venir par eaue, jusques a La Ro- 
chelle, luy ayant mande les lieux par ou elles auront a passer et par mesmes 
moien audict S"" admiral et de Montferrant de pourveoir qu'il y ait des batteaulx 
et estappes des vivres. Et ne veoy aucune chose qui puisse apporter retarde- 
ment a vostre service, que de n'avoir les deniers, pour pouvoir faire faire 
monstre a mon arrivee au camp, principallement aux gens de pied, d'autant 
qu'il est a craindre que, n'estans poinct payez et s'asseurans que je ferois 
porter argent avec moy (comme je I'avois promis a celles de vostre garde et 
du capitaine Gadz), ilz se desbendent et que le nombre que je m'attendz y 
estre n'y soit poinct. Je vous supplie tres humblement, Monseigneur, de 
commander que Ton regarde de cercher tous les moyens dont Ton se pourra 
adviser pour m'envoyer les troys cens mil livres que je debvois avoir avant 
mon partement de la Court. 

Au demeurant, Monseigneur, j'ay receu la lettre qu'il vous a pleu m'escripre 
du Xllle de ce moys, et veu par le contenu d'icelle comme vous avez resolu 
deux poinctz. Le premier, de la suppression de tous ofifices qui vacqueront, 
pour congnoistre la grand charge que cela apporte a vous et a voz subgectz, 
pour les gaiges qu'il leur fault payer. Et I'autre, que vous avez commande 
qu'il ne soit depesche cy apres aucun ofl&ce ou benefice dont il vous sera bailie 
memoire ou placet, que troys moys apres que vous verrez les rooUes qui en 
seront faictz, pour les departir a ceulx qui font service, principallement en ce 
camp aupres de moy. Ce que je ne fauldray leur faire entendre, suivant ce 
qu'il vous plaist me mander. J'ay aussy veu le memoire que vous a est6 
bailie de ce que Ton vous propose pour la conqueste que vous pouvez faire 
a I'Yndie avec peu de despence, laquelle je ne puis trouver que tres bonne, 
lorsque vous serez en paix et que voz affaires le pourront permectre, y estans 
les richesses et commoditez portees par ledict memoire. Vous sfavez combien 
telles entreprises et conquestes ont apporte de profi&ct au feu Empereur et 



588 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Roy Catholique, pour le grand nombre d'or qu'il a tire et tire ordinairement 
du Peyrou, tellement que, sans cela, il n'eust eu moyen d'entretenir et soldoyer 
les armees et forces qu'il a entretenues jusques a present, qui me faict vous 
conseiller (soubz vostre meilleur adviz) de ne laisser poinct perdre ceste occa- 
sion, quand vous congnoistrez qu'elle pourra estre mise a execution. Pre- 
sentement, j'ay eu nouvelles que le Sr Paul Emille a tant faict que ceulx de 
La Rochelle qui le detiennent prisonnier Font mis a rangon pour mil escruz, 
dont aulcuns de ses amys ont respondu pour luy. Laquelle somme il n'a 
aucun moyen de foumir, si ce n'est de vostre liberalite, grace et specialle 
faveur, laquelle je vous supplie vouloir estendre en luy pour cest effect, et luy 
faire paroistre la souvenance que vous avez tousjours eu de ceulx qui vous 
font service. Aussy, Monseigneur, j'ay este adverty que I'estat de viceneschal 
de la Haulte et Basse Marche, qui est es terres de mon apennaige est a present 
vacant par mort, la disposition et provision duquel neanmoins vous appartient. 
A ceste cause, je vous supplie encores le vouloir accorder aux Sieurs de Ville- 
quier, pour lesquelz je vous en faictz requeste, et commander que la depesche 
et provision soit faicte en leur faveur au nom de tel personnaige suffisant et 
cappable qu'ilz nommeront et non autrement. Sur ce je suppUeray le Createur 
vous donner, 

Monseigneur, en tres bonne sante, tres longue et tres heureuse vie. 

Escript a la Guierche, le XlX^e jour de Janvier 1573. 

[Propria manu] Vostre tres humble et tres obeissant frere et subget. 

Henry 

[Original] 



APPENDIX XXXI 

[P. 458, n. 3] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. CXXVI, No. 419 

[Charles IX to Montgomery] 

Mons"^ le Conte j'ay este bien ayse d'entendre par le s^ de S' lehan votre 

frere la bonne volunte en laquelle il vous trouva de vous contenir doulcement 

par dela et sans entreprendre ou favoriser aucune chose qui soit contra le 

bien de mon service, qui est ce que je desire de vous, et me semble que ne 

scauriez mieulx faire pour votre honne'^ & advantaige, ayant pour ceste cause 

advise vous envoyer le s"" de Chasteauneuf present porteur expres pour vous 

dire & asseurer que vous comportant d . . . ' je vous feray conserver en 

tout ce qui vous touchera il vous maintiendray ainsy que mes autres bons 

& loyaulx subjects comme vous entenderez plus particuUierem* dud. S"" de 

I The MS is torn here. 



APPENDICES 589 

Chasteaiineuf Sur lequel me remectant du surplus dont je vous prie le 
croire, je priray Dieu Mons"^ le Conte vous avoir en sa s'^ & digne garde. 
Escript a Paris le ix™e jo^ de feurier 1573. 

[Signed] CHARLES 

PiNART 

Mons^' le Conte, j'ay faict desgaiger 
votre vaisselle de trois cens escuz, et 
ay commande au tresor"" de mon eschiequer 
la garde po'^ la vous faire rendre 
comme je luy ay ordonne.^ 

[Addressed] Mons"^ le Conte de Montgommery. 
[Endorsed in Burghley's hand] 

9 Februar, 1572. (Sic) 
fr. Kyng to the Count 
Montgomery by Chasteaunevff. 



APPENDIX XXXII 

[P. 461, n. i] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. CXXI, No. 1,428 
Liste des villes des quelles ceuex de la relligion sasseurent en France. 
Mons^ le Prince de 
Conde et Mons'' de 
Rohan y 
commaundent 
En Xainctongne, La Rochelle 
S' Jehan, S' Angely ou commaunde Monsi" de S* Mosmes. 
Roian, Port de Mer 
Pons 
Bouteville, et quelques Chasteaux 

Mons'' de S' Geniez, 
Mans'' de Longe 
Sur la Riviere de Dordonne 
Bergirac imprenable 
StFoy 
Chastillon 

Pinnoymant &c. Et sur disces il ny a presques pas un Papiste, ny mesme 
en tout le Pays. 

I The postscript is in the same hand as the king's signature. 



59° THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Mons'' de Madailham, 
Le Baron de Beauville 
Sur le Riviere du Lot 
Villeneufve d'Agenois 
Clerac. 
S' Linerade. 

Mons'' de Turene 

En Perigort, Perigueux Ville Capitale et Plusieurs Chasteaux 

Montflanquin 

Mons'' de Chappes, 

Lieut enan: le Baron 
d'Uzac, &c., 
Figiac 
Bellie 
Puynirol \ 

Toumon ces trois sont imprenables; et sont au R. de N. 
Lanzarte } 

Turene ave toutes les terres de Monsieur de Turene en Lymosin. 
Briene la gagliarde. 

Usurstie. qui sont des meilleures: Toutes les surd, places sont bien accom- 
modees et sont toutes deje la Riviere de Garonne. 
Mons'' le Baron de 
Luzignian, Mons'' 
de Fauaz 
Sur la Garonne au bord de deca sont 
Agen ville Capitale d'Agenois grande et riche 
La Reolle, Lonne ville, dont le Chasteau est imprenable; et sur le Rivage 

dela sont 
Lengon 
Millau 

Le mas de Verdoun &c. 

Le Roy de Navar 

parce que c'est son 

pairimonie y a 

partout Portien 

de les plus afeciionez 

Entre le Garonne et le pays de Beam nous tenons 

Leystoure ville Episcopale richen et imprenable patrimonie de R. de N. 

Mauvesin 

Fleurance 

Cauze, bonne et forte ville 

Nerac 

Castel Jalouz 



APPENDICES 591 

Balas ville riche, episcopale 

Le mont de Marsan; forte 

Tout le conte de Bigorces et les pays de Marsan, Tarsan Gavardan 

. . r villes episcopales 

La principaute de Beam 

La basse Navarre 

Le Pays des basques, a quoy on a donne tiel ordre que nouristant la paix il 

ne si changera rien. 
Au contrarie de puis la paix Grenade Beaumont et Verdun villes ont reconut 

le Roy de Navarre p"" governeur et se sont mises soubz sa protection et 

tous les jours si la paix tient quelque peu si en mettra de nouvelles. M. 

L. Amirall a assiege Beaumont a cause de cela ou il a este tresbien battu. 

M. le Vicount 
de Terides 
Pays de Quercy nous tenons 
Montauban imprenable et une des belles villes de guerre du monde. 

M. la Vicount 

de Gourdon 
Figeac capitale de Haut Quercy 
Caussade 
Realville 
S' Antonin 
Villemur &c. en ces villes tout le peuple est de la religion. 

Vicont 
de Paulini 
Au pays de Rourgue. 
Millaut ville episcopale 
Vabres ville episcopale 

Creissel et autres en grand nombre fortes d'assietes dont nous ne scavons le 
nom. Le peuple aussi est de fort longtemps de la religion et sont en 
tous ces pays des relliques des vieux. 

Le Baron de 
Aiidon 
En Languedoc, toute la Conte de Foix qui tient depuis les montz Pirenees 
jusques aux portes de Thoulouse Patrimonie du R. de N. en icelle sont 
Pasmicas ville forte peuplee, presque de la religion episcopale. 
Foix ville et chasteu imprenable. 
Sa Verdan 
Mazores 
Le Carla 



592 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

Le mas d'Azil, toutes riches et imprenables. Et ceste demiere se faict une 
quantite purniable de Saltpetre pour muner tout le pays de poudre. 

Le baron de 
Monhardies 
En Lauraignais partie du bas Languedoc sont 
Puylaurens 
Revel 
Soureze 
St Paul 
Cramain &:c. 

Castres ville episcopale imprenable 
L'Isle d . . . .' et plusieurs autres en la montagne. 
I A space is left blank in the MS. 

M. de Chastilon, 
M. de Thore, 
M. de 5' Romain, ^c. 
Au hout Languedoc, y en a infinies, les plus notables sont 
Monpelier 
Nismes 
Aiguesmortes 
Lunel 
Aimargnes 
Marsilargnes 
Sommieres 
Uzez 
Auz 
Aleth 

Lodeve la pluspart episcopale 
Tout le Pays de Vivarez; et le Pays de Sevenes. 
M. de [L] Ediguieres 
En Daulphine nous tenons tout le haut Pays, et du bas pays presque 
toutes les villes . . . .' quatre ou cinq. Gap et Dis villes prmcipales sont 
a nous et cinq cens gentilihomines tous de la religion entre les quels y a tresbon 

ordre. 

Le Baron d' Alemagne 

En Provence nous avons quelques bonnes villes, entre autres Seine, le 
grand Tour, et tout le meilleur du Conte de Venisse, appartenant au Pope a 
cause d 'Avignon. 

Le Roy de Navarre ces places foumies de garnissons necessaires tant de 
pied que de cheval, pent sans sortir de Guienne mettre huict mil hommes de 
I A space is left blank in the MS. 



APPENDICES 



593 



pied en campagne et mille gentilihomines et fournir I'equippage de six canons 
et deux couleurines &c. et quand il sera joinct avec les forces de Languedoc 
(car le Daulphine a le Rhosne entredeux) il poura faire estat de loooo hommes 
de pied 2000 chevaux des meilleurs qui se virent jamais en France, et 10 canons, 
quatre couleurines et la pouldre et munitions et equipage d'iceux. 

Pour les affaires de la guerre en son conseil il est assiste de M"^ de Meru. 
Monsieur de Turene qui a esgarde sur la Perigort et Lymosin en sa absence. 
Mr de la Noue chef et superintendant de sa maison. 
M"^ de viconte de Terride, Baron de Serignac, vieux Capitaine. 
M"^ de S' Geniez, vieux Capitaine et homme de bon entendement. 
Mr le Baron de Lusignan. Gouvemeur de Agenois. 
Mr de Fontralles, M"^ le Baron d' Audon. 
Mr de Guitry qui sont tous des meilleurs Cap: de France. 

Pour le mainement des negogiations, outre les susd. il est assiste de M'' 
de Grateinx son Chauncelier, Mi^ des Aginz President et M^ des Requestes 
et plus'^s autres de mesme reing. 

Outre ceux y y a plusieurs Princes, Seignurs, Vicontes, et Barons affectes 
de tout temps au party de la religion. Toutesfois je les ay lieu voulu mettre 
icy croire ilz me sont vennues en memorie. 



Le R. de N. 

M' le P. de Conde 

M. de Rohan 

M. de Nemours 

M. de Laval 

M de Rochebemard son frere 

M. de Meru 

M. de Thore 

M. de Turene 

M. de Chastillon 

M de Clermont 

M. de la Noue 

M. de S. Genie et ses freres 

M. le Viconte de Tirrede 

M. de St. Romain 

Le Baron de Fontrailles 

Le Baron de Ardon 

Le Baron de Senegaz 

Le Baron de Mirambeau 

M. de Languillier 

Le Baron de Verac 

Le Vic: de Savailhan 

Le Baron de S. Gehniz 



Le Baron de Mombardices 

Le Vicount de Lalant 

Le Baron de Montanhils 

Le Baron de Monlieu 

Le Baron de la Rochalais 

Le Prince de Chalais 

M. de Mouy 

M. de la Forse gendre de M. de Biron 

Le Vicont de Chasteauneuf 

Le Baron de Piersebuffiere 

Le Baron de Salignac 

Le Baron de Beinac 

Le Baron de BresoUes 

Le Vicont de Paulini 

Le Vicont de Panart 

Le Vicont de Gourdon 

Le Vicont de Arpajon 

Le Baron de Cabrere 

M. de Ediguires 

M. de Guitry 

Le Baron de Longa 

M. de Campagnac 

M. de Boesse 



594 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

M. de Montguiron Le Baron de Beauville 

Le Baron de Montandie Le Baron de Reine 

Le Baron de Luzignan Le Baron de Vercillac 

M. de Bonevall Le Baron de S. Nauphan 

M. de Ussac Le Baron de S. Arlaye 

Le Vicont de Rochouart Le Vicont de Meherin 

Le Baron de Almagne Le Vicont de Belsane et autres. 

Tous les desus nommes sont en Guienne et de Guienne ou Languedoc ou 
pr le mo ins ont porte les armes a ceste dernier guerre. Quant aux autres 
Seigneurs et Capitaines des autres Provinces de France qui ont pareille ulcouse[?] 
et la monsteront au besoing, ascavoir es provinces assises deca la Riviere de 
Loure, ilz sont sans comparison en plus grand nombre pour respost des lieux 
ou ilz sont; nous ne les avons point nommes pas ce quilz ont attendu une 
armee de Reistres present s'y jettes, attendant la quelle ilz se sont le mieux 
quilz ont peu compertes en leurs maisons. 



[Endorsed] Les villes des quelles ceux de la 
Religion s'asseurent en France. 



[Not signed] 



APPENDIX XXXIII 

[P. 474, n. 2] 
BIBLIOTHEQUE D L'INSTITUT, COLLECTION GODEFROY 

Vol. 256, FO. 83 RECTO, no. 45 du catalogue 
[Le dtic d'Anjou a Charles IXy 

[Camp devant La Rochelle, 17 fevrier 1573].^ 
Monseigneur. Par le jeune Seguier que j'ay depesche depuis deux jours 
devers Vostre Majeste, elle aura entendu comme j'estois sur le poinct envoyer 
devers icelle le S"" de Bourrique, I'un de mes maistres d'hostelz, pour la sattis- 
faire de tout ce que je pouvois avoir a luy faire entendre de I'estat de ceste 
armee. Suivant ce, je I'ay presantement faict partir si bien instruict de touttes 
choses que je ne doubte qu'il ne luy en sgache rendre tres bon compte. Me 
restera a supplier, comme je fais tres humblement, Vostre Majeste le voulloir 
en ce qu'il vous dira de ma part oyr avec la mesme foy et creance dont elle 
a tousjours vouUu m'honnorer. J'ay veu ce qu'il luy a pleu me mander par 
sa depesche du .XI^^^ de ce mois sur la proposition que aucuns avoient faicte 
de donner la charge de vostre armee de mer a mon frere Mons"^ le Due et au 
Roy de Navarre chose que je rejectay aussi tost pour les mesmes considera- 

1 See the subscription and the notice of receipt at the end of the despatch. 

2 Ahhough the Catalogue has the date February 18 it is a mistake; the docu- 
ment has very clearly 17th. 



APPENDICES 595 

tions, que Vostredicte Majeste a bien sceu prendre, et n'estois pour le per- 
mectre en aucune sorte, de maniere que Vostredicte Majeste demourera, 
s'il luy plaist, en repos de ce couste la. 

Monseigneur, je supplie le Createur donner a Vostredicte Majeste en 
tres bonne sante et prosperite tres longue et tres heureuse vye. 

Escript au camp devant La Rochelle, le XVII^ie jour de febvrier 1573. 

Monseigneur, j'ay veu par les dernieres depesches qui vous sont venues 
d'Angleterre de S'' de La Mothe Fenellon, la demonstration que ceulx de vos 
subiectz qui sont refugiez par dela font de procurer de leur part I'entier repos 
de vostre royaume avec ceulx de leur religion. Chose qui me semble estre 
tres avantageuse au bien de vostre service, et que, pour 1' effect de leur bonne 
intention, il vous plaise leur bailler touttes les seuretez necessaires pour venir 
par defa. Estant ceste voye, si elle peult profifiter, beaucoup plus aisee et 
seure que celle de la force, outre le moien que ce vous seroit de conserver 
beaucoup de voz bons subjectz et serviteurs et soulaiger d'autant vostre bourse.^ 

[Propria manu] Vostre treshumble et tres obeissant frere et subget 

Henry. 

[All dos, Suscription] Au Roy, Monseigneur et frere. 

[All dos, alia manu] Monseigneur, du XVII™e febrier. M^' de Bourricques. 

[Original] 



APPENDIX XXXIV 

[P. 503, n. i] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 

Elizabeth, Vol. CXXXIV, No. 186, iij 

[Dr. Valentine Dale to Lord Burgh ley] 

Es eo tempore quo proxime ad te scripsi nullum fuit mihi prorsus tempus 

animi laxandi, ita fui partim itineribus partim multis gravibus & impeditis 

rebus administrandis distractus, nee satis etiam nunc scio an mihi liceat aliqua 

intermissione frui ut de liberioribus ac amoenioribus studiis possim aliquantisper 

cogitare Neque verb tuam nunc volo sive tarditatem sive negligentiam in scrib- 

endo accusare nulla est enim mihi remissae erga me tuae amicitiae vel minima 

suspitio. Ut scias igitur quid rerum hie agatur Nunquam tanta animorum 

consentione ad pacem conspiratum est nee unquam tamen magis diversis studiis 

de pacis conditionibus ineundis actum est Coguntur enim plane jam omnes 

longo & ancipiti bello fessi & ad inopiam atque egestatem usque redacti 

necessario nunc tandem ac serio de pace cogitare. Neque enim aut aeris 

alieni quo infinito premuntur dissolvendi ratio est, nee sumptus qui sunt 

I The postscript it found thus, between the date and the signature. 



596 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

apud istos profusissimi diutius sustinere possunt. Vectigalia autem ac ceteri 
reditus regii aut oppignorata aut distracta sunt ut annul regis proventus ne ad 
erogationes quidem domesticas satis sufiiciant. Vident igitur omnes si bellum 
gerendum sit, infinita contributione opus esse, cum nullae sint principis ad 
bellum gerendum facultates, & omnis qua opus sit regi pecunia ab aliis sumenda 
aut potius extorquenda sit. Homines autem nobiles per quos bellum precipue 
geritur quorum amplissimae sunt facultates (nam hi psene soli praedia possident 
& vicena aut tricena aut etiam centena plerique millia aureorum nummum 
habent annua) Hi quantam alicunde pecuniam corradere possunt eam prodige 
& profuse ilico profundunt, nulla est enim eis cura rei familiaris, sed tanqam 
in diem viventes quibus opus habent rebus quantivis comparant eam quam 
habent pecuniam negligentes & quam non habent quibusvis rationibus vel 
quamvis cum jactura conquirentes. Solent autem illis ut plurimum belli 
presertim tempore sumptus a rege subministrari. Nunc autem quum videant 
nihil esse regi, quod det, corpora sua periculis Hbenter non subjiciunt, inviti 
autem hoc presertim tempore ad bellum non adiguntur, itaque fit ut qui fere 
uni pro principe soliti sint decertare hi bellum in primis detrectent. Plebs 
autem rustica inops semper est atque egena, non enim ut nostri improvidos 
reperiunt prediorum dominos, a quibus prerogata quadam modica pecunia 
exili reditu conductis agris, ad magnas opes perveniant, sed aut Coloni partiarii 
agrum magno labore parvo autem cum compendio colunt, aut justum fructuum 
precium pendunt. Hoc vero tempore vastationibus populationibus & direp- 
tionibus ita sunt expilati, ut nee bos ad arandum nee frumentum ad sementes 
faciendas supersit: tantum abest ut illorum pecunia bellum geri possit. Re- 
liqua sunt oppida que sane sunt multa & cives certe ditissimi Nam que magna 
ut scis nostris est trium millium coronatorum pecunia, apud istos ducentorum 
aut trecentorum millium exigue sunt facultates, & qui urbes incolunt soli 
aut sub pignoribus & hypothecis nobilium proventus possident, aut eorum 
facultates foenere exhauriunt. Inter istos autem cives opifices non nomino, 
quorum infinitus est numerus qui admodum difficulter victum magnis laboribus 
in urbibus querunt non enim in agris locus illis est ubi se ac suos tenuiter 
colendis agris aut pecore pascendo, ut nostri faciunt, alant. Itaque in urbis 
quisque proximasse confert, ubi officinas instituunt & vitam labore producunt. 
Multo minus inter cives numerandi sunt hi, qui passim in viis scatent omnibus 
oratoriis preceptis ac artibus instructi quo hominum mentes ad elemosinam 
& commiserationem permoveant. Neque etiam bonos illos viros hie nomino, 
quorum magnus est numerus qui se fratres dici volunt, quamvis inter se odiis 
plusquam fraternis dissideant quos ego plane eos esse existimo quos Chaucerus 
noster ex loco illo parum honesto sese proripere scribit. qui nugas ac nenias 
venditando in eam authoritatem pervenerunt. Ut aequum existiment rogari 
potius sese quam rogare: tanquam viri omnibus virtutibus excellentes ad quorum 
pedes bona nostra projicere debeamus, quanquam illorum ptene jam explosa 



APPENDICES 597 

est disciplina ab illis quorum novum est ancupium qui se Jesuistas appellant, 
& perfect! volunt esse, juxta illud. Estote perfect! sicut ego sum, inter quos 
Darbesherus noster non est minimus apostolorum si noster dicendus est qui 
& nos & seipsum deservit & aliam vitam alios mores sequitur, illi autem quos 
dixi Gives qui tantum opibus valent, clientelis miseorum opificum in quos 
imperium habent & suis divitiis freti, pecuniam sibi imperari non patiuntur, 
sciunt enim neminem esse qui eos cogere possit, cum rex parum fisus nobilibus, 
tutelam urbium arma, machinas, bellicas, moenia, & quicquid est roboris illis 
commiserit, rogati autem immensas & crebras priores pensitationes & tributa 
causantur itaque pauxillulam tandem aliquam pecuniam prout nee causa 
postulat tanquam ab invitis quasi vi sibi exprimi patiuntur. Jam Episcopi 
Abbates & alii quibus opima sunt sacerdotia cum videant omnium oculos in 
se ac bona sua esse conjectos nee aliquam aliam esse rationem conficiende 
pecuniae nisi quae ex eorum bonis & prediis distrahendis redigatur. Quis erit 
(inquiunt) tandem nostri expilandi finis si bellum adhuc duret An non sex 
decimas annuas fructuum nostrorum pensitamus. Vix annus adhuc est quod 
octingenta millia francorum que sunt centena millia librarum nostrarum in 
profectionem Polonicam dedimus jamque nos urgent Questores regii ad solu- 
tionem unius millionis & dimidiie francorum, que summa est quingentorum 
millium coronatorum gallicorum, quos rex approbante pontifice nobis extor- 
quet: cujus pecuniae solvendae rationem nuUam adhuc habemus. Non tametsi 
pontifex ad rem tarn piam nempe ad bellum intestinum alendum, predia 
ecclesiastica ad eum summam venire permiserit, emptores tamen non reperiun- 
tur, coguntque nos ofificiales & ministri regii pecuniam quam non habemus, 
nostro periculo representare: recepturos aliquando ex distractione bonorum, 
si qui tandem reperiantur, qui tarn dubio jure litem futuram present! pecunia 
velint comparare. non enim ignotae sunt artes pontificias: Veniet namque 
facile tempus cum Pontifex iste aut successor aliquis ejus restitutionem in in- 
tegrum pro ecclesia non sine dirarum etiam imprecatione a se impetrari 
facillime patiatur, nulla habita eorum ratione qui in bona ecclesiastica pecuniam 
impenderunt. Itaque eo ventum est ut hi quorum causa bellum hoc geritur 
& qui evangelicos plurimum oderunt hi nunc pacem maxime expetant, & quem- 
vis Dei cultum potius permittant, quam se indies argento emungi patiantur 
imo quidvis inquiunt potius in malam rem doceant Hugonoti, neque enim 
magis ab illis quam ab istis possumus expilari Nee est illorum non inepta sane 
oratio. Jam homines miseri qui sedibus pulsi patria carent, inopes vagantur, 
quibtis insidiae undique tenduntur, supplicia & mortes intentantur, qui deserti 
ab omnibus, perpetuas excubias ad sese tuendos agunt hi pacem si unqam 
antehac nunc certe fessi ac defatigati misere cupiunt, ut aliquis tandem sit 
laborum finis & patria terra quiescere liceat. Nemo est igitur qui non uno 
ore pacem affectet, ad pacem oculos, animum & omnes cogitationes convertat. 
Quin & Pontifex ipse sibi timens & veritus quem res nee sit habitura exitum. 



598 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

& precipue de comitatu Avinionensi sollicitus, alios non lacessitos esse malit, 
quam de suis rebus in periculum venire: sperans futurum ut rex intermisso 
bello integris viribus eos facile opprimat, quos nunc lacerato regno satis vexare 
non possit. Ex qua re factum est, ut sermonibus hominum certa pax facta, 
& negocium prorsus transactum esse diceretur, & ea fama per uniuersum 
orbem sparsa sit, pacem jam manibus teneri. Sed cum de pacis conditionibus 
agi ceptum est, longe fuerunt alie hominum voluntates, longe alius rei exitus. 
Nam quibus antea sua facilitate impositum est, ne in idem discrimen inciderent 
Evangelicae libertati & saluti sue presidiis, urbibus ac rebus aliis que ad 
vitam tuendam pertinent sibi consulere voluerunt, nee se aliorum fidei com- 
mittendos esse censuerunt quin rebus omnibus integris arma sumere possent, 
ut si non melior at saltem non deterior istis pactionibus illorum conditio fiieret. 
Alii contra qui spe miseros illos homines devorarant & sibi occasionem egre- 
giam oblatam existimabant, incautos homines vafricia & insidiis prorsus 
opprimendi, cum viderent non esse locum dolis quin potius futurum ut Evan- 
gelium propagaretur, nee esse in illorum potestate, ut istis conditionibus 
homines Evangelici exterminarentur, quidvis potius faciendum esse suadebant, 
quam locum illis dari quos extinctos esse cupiunt, hi & se & sua omnia regi 
offerunt, & quoduis discrimen subeundum esse censent. Itaque nunc Pontifex 
bellum alioqui formidans pecuniam mutuam satis amplam u(l)troneus offert: 
(sibi tamen satis callide pignoribus cavens) ut regis animum a pacis cogitatione 
avertat. Sunt etiam alii viri providi & rebus suis prospicientes, qui sciunt 
vetus illud esse, mobilia esse gallorum ingenia ad suscipiendum bellum (neque 
enim in tanta penuria & tantes difficultatibus de aliis perturbandis desinunt 
cogitare, nee istis unquam aut voluntas aut pecunia ad alios vexandos deest) 
qui ista penitius perspiciunt Sz sibi prudenter cavent, hi frigidam suffundunt, 
pristinam -gloriam nominis gaUici commemorantes, & ignominiam ob oculos 
ponentes, si tale dedecus subeatur ut quasi victi manus tendere, & leges jam 
non dare sed accipere cogantur, futurum ut tempore vires regia crescant, alii 
contra vel simultatibus solvantur, vel insidiis opprimantur, vel premiis & 
poUicitationibus separentur, qua ex re fiet aliquando ut rex victor stirpem 
iilam hominum prorsus exterminet, & ecclesias Romane vindex etemam sibi 
famam ad posteros transmittat. Hie ego si tibi que fuerint postulata, que 
responsa, que argumenta in utramque partem adducta, qua constantia per- 
mansum sit in petitis, quibus artibus Evangehcorum legati tentati sint, quibus 
intercessoribus res tractata sit, historiam tibi non epistolam scriberem nolo 
tamen tibi ignotum esse egregiam fuisse in hac re Helvetiorum protestantium 
operam, ego autem quod potui porro ut est apud comicum nostrum. His 
igitur rebus effectum est ut post multas & longas de pace disceptationes incer- 
tiores simus multo quam dudum, pacem enim facere noluit bellum autem 
gerere non possunt. 

Cum ista superiora aliquot dies scripta apud me haberem, nee describendi 



APPENDICES 599 

esset ocium accepi tandem tuas vicesimo quarto Maii scriptas, ex quibus 
intelHgo esse etiam apud vos fidefragos, ut tuo verbo utar, nam foedifragos 
usquam gentium reperiri non est fas dicere, itaque nactus ocium te istis quibus- 
cunque carere nolui, nee si tibi sit cordi uUum laborem recusabo, quin priores 
etiam meas queas tu le amisisse tantopere quereris descriptas ad te mittam. 
Vale & nostras omnes meo nomine diligenter saluta nam eos de mea salute 
sollicitos esse scio. Lutietie Parisiorum ultimo Junii 1575. 

Tui amantissimus 

V. D. 

{Not addressed] 

[Endorsed] Ult°. Junii^ 1575 

Mr D. Dale to m 1. 

from Paris. 
\In Burghley's hand a lettre wrytten in latin concerning the state of France. 



APPENDIX XXXV 

[P. 503, n. 2] 

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN 
Elizabeth, Vol. CXXXI, No. 895 
[Henry III to Queen Elizabeth] 
Treshaulte tresexellente, et trespuissante princesse Nostre treschere et 
tresamee bonne seur et cousine ayant entendu le trespas ces jours passez 
advenu du feu Roy nostre trecher s^ et frere nous en avons receu ung tresgrand 
regret enuy & desplaisir pour la singuUiere affection et fraternelle amitie quil 
nous a tousjours portee et demonstree par tous bons offices. Et aussy pour 
la perte grande qui en demeure generallement a toute la Chrestiente, et a nous 
particullierement, qui luy avions tant dobligation comme nous avons encores 
en sa memoire, pour tant d'honneurs et de faveurs quil luy a pleu tousjours 
nous departir de son vivant. Ce que saichant que les princes ses voisins 
auront pareillement porte avec douleur, et mesmement vous, avec qui il 
avoit et a tousjours eu si bonne & parfaicte amitye, voisinaige et intelligence. 
Nous avons pense estre bien convenable a I'amitye mutuelle qui est aussy 
entre nous noz Royaumes et pais de nous en condoulloir avec vous, comme 
nous faisons par la presente en attendant qu'estant arrive en nostre Royaume 
de France (ainsy que nous I'esperons bien tost avec layde de Dieu) nous 
puissions nous acquicter plus dignement de cest office. Voullans bien vous 
dire & asseurer cependant que si vous avez congneu le feu Roy notred. S'^' 
et frere desireulx de conser\'er la bonne et sincere amitye voisinance et intel- 

I Altered in Burghley's hand from 7° Jidii. 



6oo THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

ligence que vous aviez ensemble, vous n'en debuez pas moings attendre & 
esperer de nous son successeur a la corone de France Ne voullant seullement 
continuer en lad. amitye, mais la fortifier asseurer et augmenter par tous 
honnorables & dignes offices que doibuent les princes amis les ungz aux autres 
ainsy qu'avons donne charge au s'' de la Mo the Fennelon vous faire entendre 
que vous prions recevoir et avoir agreable aupres de vous pour y estre notre 
conseiller et ambassadeur resident, tout ainsy quil estoit du feu roy nostre 
feu S'^ et frere Et ne pouvons aussy trouver que tresbon I'exercice quil a faict 
de ladicte legation de puis ledict decedz advenu, tant suivant les tres de feu 
notred. S"^ & frere que celles de la Royne nostre treshonnoree dame et mere 
qui en avoit tout pouvoir et a laquelle nous envoyons presentement le nostre 
le plus ample quil nous est possible. Saichant combien elle merite de cested. 
corone, et combien elle sest aussy tousjours rendue affectionnee au bien de 
nous tous ses enfens, et des affaires et prosperite de notred. Royaulme, vous 
priant croire ledict s^" de la Mothe de ce quil vous dire sur tout ce que dessus 
et y adj ouster foy comme feriez a nous mesmes Qui prions Dieu treshaulte 
tresexellente et trespuissante princesse Nostre treschere et tresamee bonne 
seur et cousine vous avoir en sa tressainte et tresdigne garde. Escript a 
Cracovye le xv'^*^ jour de Juing 1574. 

[Signed] Vostre bon frere et cousin 

HENRY 
Warsevicz 
[Addressed] A treshaulte tresexcellenle et 

trespuissante princesse Nostre 

treschere et tresamee bonne 

seur & cousine la Royne 

D'Angleterre. 
[Endorsed] June xv^^ i574- 

From the K. of Polonia to her Mat'^. Dated at Cracovia. 

He condolethe the deathe of the K. his brother offreth and 

requireth lyke contynewance of amitie as was betwene her and 

his brother Desiereth her Ma^'e to accept Mon^r de la Mothe 

for his Ambassadeur. 



APPENDICES 6oi 

APPENDIX XXXVI 

[P. 504, n. 2] 
ARCHIVES NATIONALES 

K. 1,537, PIECE NO. 22 

]Report of a Spanish Spy about Calais (Deciphered)] 

[Au dos] Descifrado. 

x\visos de Cales a XVIIP de Mar^o 1575 

[En tete] Avisos de Cales a XVIII° de Marjo 1575 

Quiero dezir el runrun que anda entre estos Franceses, no porque me passe 
por el pensamiento que deva ser assi, pero en secreto se dize que el Rey de 
Francia anda tramando para yr sobre los Estados, 6 tomarlos, y que su her, 
mano se casa con hija del Principe, y otros muchos casamientos que se hazen- 
y que se haze armada en toda Francia para ello, y oy ha Uegado aqui aquel 
Embaxador con treynta cavallos, que va a la Reyna de Inglaterra, y viene de 
Paris, y assi mismo se aguarda (segun se dize) el que esta en Brusselas, para yr 
tambien a la dicha Inglaterra. De suerte que no se sabe otro sino esto, que, 
como digo, se dize en secreto, y en partes que nos lo han dicho. Plegue a 
Dios que nos guarde dello, que bien creo si suspection dello huviesse, lo sabria 
el Embaxador que esta en Paris y lo advertiria a essa Bolsa, pues importa. 
Aunque, como digo, no creo nada dello, y no he querido dexar de escrivirlo en 
esta, para que se tenga aviso dello, sin que se entienda, pues no se suffre dezir. 



APPENDIX XXXVII 

[P- 505, n- 3l 

STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC 

Elizabeth, Vol. CV. No. 51 

[Walsingham to Lord Burgh ley] "" 

My verry good L. I send your L. sooche letters as I receyved from owre 

Imb. dyrectid unto you by the w^i'' yt may appeare unto you that Q. mother 

had some intentyon under the cullore of a Parle wt her sonne to have intrapped 

him. I thinke the gentleman hathe to good exsperyence of her to truste her 

(thovs^ghe nature myght somewhat move him therin) I longe to heare that he 

were past the Ryvere of Loyre: for before that tyme I shall be greatly jealouse 

of his savetye. Her ma' was perswaded under the cullor of scooryng the seas 

to have set owt two of her shipps to have receyved him yf being not well as- 

systed he shoold be forced to flye but she can not be drawen to yelde therto. 

This daye ther came letters from the justyces of Devonshire that the seconde 

of this monethe ther arryved on ther cost 48 sayle of Spanyshe men of warre 

whoe desyered herborrowynge but were denyed fc^ that they had no passeporte 



6o2 THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 

of her ma*. Notw'standyng they suffered the Admyrall and vyceadmirall 

to come in to the porte of Darmouthe: wher as the gentlemen advertyce yt is 

thowght they wyll lande some treasvre to be conveyed by lande unto London 

The rest of the ships are gon towardes Dunkyrke. The Generall of them is 

Don Petro de Baldis whoe maryed Petro Malendas daughter. The arryvall 

of this armye makethe me greatly to dowbt the P. of Oranges well doinge: 

whoe alreadye seamethe to be in verry harde case. I praye God owre mer- 

chauntes fynde them good neyghebowres. Owt of the northe we have hearde 

nothing laetly And so having nothing ells to advertyce I commyt your L. to 

Goods good kepyng most humbly takyng my leave. At Rycot the vj* of 

Octobre 1575. 

Yr L. to commavnde 

Era: Walsyngham 
[Addressed] To the right honorable 
my vearie good Lord the 
L. treasurer. 

[Endorsed] 6. Octob. 1575. 

Mr Secret: Walsingham 
the Spanish flete in 
the west. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Abbeville, riot at, 133. 

Acuna, Don Juan de, mission of, to 

Savoy, 308. 
Adresse, baron des, Huguenot chieftain 

in Dauphine, 147; prince of Conde 

thinks of joining, 153; lieutenant 

of, in Provence, 395. 
Agde,, court at, 252. 
Agen, riot at, 133, 134; Catholic league 

of, 215, 225, 254; Montluc thinks of 

retiring to, 403; Montluc fortifies, 

406. 
Aides, 82. 
Aigues Mortes, Damville introduces 

Turkish fleet into, 492. 
Aix, association of Provence formed at, 

214, 225; court at, 251. 

Alava, Spanish ambassador in France: 
theft of cipher of, 266, 317, n. 6; ex- 
ceeds instructions in threatenmg war, 
266, n.; charges Catherine de Medici 
with duplicity 315; protests against 
overtures for peace, 417; incident 
with Tavannes, 418, 419; haughty 
reply of Charles IX to, 441. 

Albanian troops with Alva, 307, 310. 

Albi, 395, 405, 406. See also Viscounts. 

Albret, Jeanne d', queen of Navarre, 
wife of Antoine of Bourbon and 
mother of Henry IV: mentioned, 
120; Antoine of Bourbon quarrels 
with, 132; demand for banishment of, 
by Spanish ambassador, 133; con- 
sideration shown, 239; plot of Mont- 
luc and Spain to kidnap, 260; ex- 
communicated, 261; maintains court 
preacher to anger of Catholics, 288; 
mobilizes troops in Beam, 307; 
territories of, 350; crushes Catholic 
League at St. Palais, 355; crosses 
Garonne River "under the nose of 
Montluc," 368, n. ; pawns her jewels, 
378; directs foreign negotiations with 
Huguenots, 379; negotiations of 
government with, 391-93. 

Alengon, Francois, duke of, youngest 
brother of Charles IX: governor of 
Paris, 358; marriage negotiations 
with Queen Elizabeth, 430 ff.; char- 
acter and appearance of, 432; Hugue- 



not-Politique plot to recognize,' as 
heir apparent, 477, 478; complaint 
of, to Charles IX, 479; arrested, 480; 
escape of, 505; revolt of provinces 
to, 506; terms demanded of Henry 
III, 508; privileges of, in Peace of 
Monsieur, 519, 520. 

Alessandria de la Paille, Alva at, 311. 

Alexander VI, bull of, 300. 

Allny, secretary sent to confer about 
peace, 344. 

Alsace, Baron Bol wilier of, 301. 

Alva, duke of, proxy for Philip II at 
marriage of Elizabeth of Valois, 3; 
suspected of urging inquisition in 
France, 12; -favors repressive policy 
of Henry II, 117; upon commerce of 
Low Countries, 163; purposes to 
have Havre put in hands of Philip II 
for mediation between France and 
England, 198; advises fortification of 
Gravelines, 267, 268; instructions 
at Bayonne, 273; advises execution 
of Huguenot leaders, 274; relations 
with Catherine de Medici at Bayonne, 
277; influence over duke of Mont- 
pensier, 304; Philip II determines to 
send, to Netherlands, 305; march 
of, through Savoy, Franche Comte, 
and Lorraine, 305-11; sails from 
Cartagena and arrives at Genoa, 
309; arrives at Brussels, 312; and 
the Gueux, 314; arrests Egmont and 
Hoorne, 318; opinion of, of cardinal 
of Lorraine, 336, n.; appealed to by 
cardinal of Lorraine, 336, 337; 
off'ers aid to Catherine of Medici, 338; 
suggests coming in person to relief 
of French crown, 338; instructions 
to, 351; protests against Huguenot 
activity in Flanders, 360; defeats 
Louis of Nassau at Jemmingen, 361; 
executes Egmont and Hoorne, 361; 
offer of aid accepted by France, 380; 
Jeanne d' Albret protests against, 
393; tyranny of, in the Netherlands, 
441; revolt of Flushing and Middel- 
burg against, 444; determines to 
retire his forces into Ghent and 
Antwerp, 444; desperate straits of, 
446; intercepts Genlis' relief column, 
447- 



605 



6o6 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



Amboise, 140; drownings at, 154; royal 
chest at, 346. See also Amboise, 
Edict of. 

Amboise, conspiracy of: origin, 28- 
31; participation of D'Andelot in, 
30; secret of, discovered, 32; crushed, 
33-39; Conde accused of complicity 
in, 40; Catherine de Medici accused 
of being secret party to, by Tavannes, 
42, n.; return of French exiles after, 
194; memory of, haunts Catherine 
de Medici, 288. 

Amboise, Edict of, 191; hostility of 
Spain to, 194; cannot be enforced, 
207; overtures to break, 209; rupture 
of, 250; amendments to, 295, 318. 

Amiens, three-fourths of population 
said to be Huguenot, 230. 

Amsterdam, endangered, 444; all Hol- 
land lost to Spian, save Rotterdam 
and, 446. 

Andelot, Francois de Chatillon, sieur 
d', 6, 8; in conspiracy of Amboise, 
30; counsels Catherine de Medici, 
128; Spanish ambassador objects 
to presence of, at court, 133; joins 
Conde at Meaux, 137; appears 
before Paris, 137; overtures made by, 
139; lieutenant to Conde, 140; 
destroys bridge at Jargeau, 151; sent 
to Germany for assistance, 154, n., 
158; plans to cut Paris off, 159; 
gives Aumale the slip, 162; German 
horse of, 172; serious position of, 
in Orleans, 186; asks aid of Queen 
Elizabeth, 187; quarrels with Cath- 
erine de Medici, 238; sent to Switzer- 
land, 307; sent to protect Cham- 
pagne against Alva, 315; sent to 
seize Poissy, 332; proposition to 
marry son of, to sister of duke of 
Guise, 34=5; mentioned, 358; death 
of, 378. 

Anduze, Catholic league at, 355. 

Angennes, 255. 

Angers, Huguenot outVjurst at, 95, 127; 
mentioned, 140; cruelties at, 148, 
2S8; duke of Alengon demands, 
508. 

Angouleme, bishop of, French ambas- 
sador in Rome, 57, 283; duke of 
Anjou raises siege of, 378, 405, 406; 
Charles IX offers to yield to Hugue- 
nots, 416; revolts, 502; duke of 
Alenjon demands, 508. 



Angoumois, revolt in, 150; duke of 
Anjou in, 381. 

Anjou, 141, 154, 286; Catholic league 
in, 216. 

Annates, 80. 

Antinori, agent of Pius IV, 250. 

Antoine of Bourbon, king of Navarre, 
wife of Jeanne d'Albret and father 
of Henry IV: mentioned, 8; char- 
acter and policy of, 23, 24; attends 
Elizabeth of Valois into Spain, 24; 
suspected of complicity in conspiracy 
of Amboise, 42; Huguenot overtures 
to, 63; appreciated by Catherine 
de Medici, 72; promised Sardinia, 
73; inclines to Spain, 96; nominal 
authority of, 99; hopes for restora- 
tion of Navarre, 100; relations of, 
with Spanish ambassador, 100-2; 
uncertain conduct of, 116, 117; plot 
against, 119; hopes to compound 
with Philip II, 131; negotiates with 
Vatican, 131; prornised "kingdom" 
. of Tunis, 132; instructed in Catholic 
faith, 132; quarrels with Jeanne 
d'Albret, 132; offended at Coligny, 
133; surrenders to Triumvirate, 
137; protests against Charles IX's 
removal to Blois, 137; supports duke 
of Guise, 138; overtures to Cather- 
ine de Medici, 139; weakens, 141; 
publishes proclamation against Hu- 
guenots in Paris, 149; at Vernon, 
152; at Blois, 154; mortally wounded 
at siege of Rouen, i6g; dies, 170; 
confesses religion of Augsburg, 171, n. 

Antwerp, population of, 314; Alva 

determines to retire his forces into, 

444. 
Aosta, duke of Alva at, 311. 
Aquitaine, 26, 45. 
Aragon, Ferdinand of, 395. 
Argentan, Montgomery takes, 472. 
Argenteuil, 327. 
Armagnac, cardinal of: helps form 

Catholic league at Toulouse, 214; 

revives Catholic league at Toulouse, 

354, 397- 
Arnay-le-Duc, battle of, 416. 
Arpajon, viscount of, 294, 395. 
Artois, frontier difficulty with France, 

263; revolt in, 265; mentioned, 267. 

Association: of Huguenots in Lan- 
guedoc, 207; Catholic associations, 



INDEX 



607 



213; of Bordeaux, 213, 214; of 
Provence, 214, 225; of Catholic 
towns in Rouennais, 216; Huguenot, 
in Dauphine, 223; /Association catho- 
lique at Beauvais, 354. See also 
Brotherhood of Catholics; Confra- 
ternity; Guild; League. 

Aubespine, Sebastian de, bishop of 
Limoges: French ambassador in 
Spain, 51, 97; letter of, about PhiHp 
II, 93, n. ; secret letter of, to Philip II, 
97, 98; argues with Philip II, 117; 
sent to Switzerland, 241, 242; sent to 
Spain, 316; confers about peace, 344. 

Aubigne, Huguenot historian, eye- 
witness of executions of Amboise, 39. 

Auch, 405. 

Augsburg, Confession of, 122; Antoine 
of Bourbon dies in, 271, n.; Peace 
of, 409. 

Aumale, Claude of Guise, duke of, 
35; 73; joins duke of Guise before 
Orleans, 152; captures Honfleur, 
154; approaches Rouen, 155; atro- 
cious practice of, 155; Swiss and 
Germans sent to aid of, 162; lets 
D'Andelot slip by, 162; levies troops 
in Champagne, 168; blunder of, 168; 
letter of, intercepted, 255; reiters of, 
338; army of, in Champagne, 369; cost 
of army of, 375; fails to intercept 
duke of Deuxponts, 380; reproached 
by Catherine de Medici for negligence 
and cowardice, 382. 

Auvergne, 286; Grands Jours d', 291; 
Coligny in, 416. 

Auxerre, 127, 388; rising in, 150; 
plot to seize, 350; duke of Deux- 
ponts in, 380. 

Avenelles, betrays conspiracy of Am- 
boise, TfT,. 

Avignon, 50; court at, 256; Joyeuse 
returns to, 348; Huguenots at, 411; 
papal nuncio protests against Hugue- 
nots in, 417. 

Baden, margrave of, 336, 373; mission 
of Castelnau to, 380. 

Bajazet, revolt of, 248. 

Bar, duchy of, in vassalage to duke of 
Lorraine, 425. 

Bardaxi, agent of Philip II in negotia- 
tions with Montluc, 260; instructions 
to, 351. 

Bar-le-Duc, Huguenot alarm over 
Charles IX's sojourn at, 233, 249. 



Basel, alarm at, over Alva's approach, 
308. 

Bassompierre, 180 and n.; wounded 
at Moncontour, 389. 

Bayeux, Huguenots of, 148; capitula- 
tion of, 188. 

Bayonne, 50; conference at, 225, 272- 
81; Spain impatient for fulfilment 
of promise made at, 283; uncer- 
tainty as to what was done at, 294; 
cardinal Santa Croce at, 295; no 
proof of alliance between France and 
Spain at, 318; Philip II 's interest 
in Catholic provincial leagues at, 351. 

Beam, plot to seize, by Spain, 260; 
Jeanne d'Albret mobihzes troops in, 
307, 350; Montluc's plan to conquer, 
397, 413; proposal to neutralize, 
399, 406, 407. 

Beaugency, surprise of, 151, 152; 
Conde marches to, 153; Colignv at, 
182. 

Beauvais, Huguenot outburst at, 95; 

Association catholique at, 354. 
Beggars of the Sea, capture of Brille 

by, 444. 
Bellegarde, sensechal of Toulouse: routs 

viscounts, 397; ent to Poland, 497. 
Bellievre, sent to Switzerland, 240, 241. 
Bergerac, 406; Edict of, 345; Peace of, 

540. 
Berghes, De, Flemish noble, 264, 265. 
Bern, 154, 240; forms league with 

Valais, 308; treaty of, with Savoy, 

309; neutrality of, 371. 
Bernina Pass, 241. 
Berry, Tavannes organizes Catholic 

league in, 354; duke of Deuxponts 

in, 380. 
Besangon, Granvella returns to, 265; 

Alva's route through, 308. 
Beza, at Colloquy of Poissy, in, 113, 

114; at Synod of La Rochelle, 230; 

at Synod of La Ferte-sous-Jouarre, 

240. 
Beziers, court at, 252, 406. 
Biragues, a Milanese, archbishop of 

Sens: made chancellor, 367; made 

keeper of the seal, 425; treachery of, 

425, n.; urges Charles IX to imprison 

marshal Montmorency, 479; pro- 
tests against, 492. 
Biron, sent to La Rochelle, 454; made 

a marshal, 407. 



6o8 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



Blamont, interview of Catherine de 
Medici and Louis of Nassau at, 463. 

Blanche of Castile, 252. 

Blaye, 408. 

Blesois, Protestantism in, 238. 

Blois, 27, 36, 161, 288; Charles IX 
removed to, 137, 140; camp at, 151; 
drownings at, 154; court returns to, 
185; worldng capital of France, 190; 
viscounts cross Loire at, 396; treaty 
of, 430; Charles IX signs treaty of, 
445; repudiated by Queen Eliza- 
beth, 448; no massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew at, 450. 

Bochetel, bishop of Rennes, French 
ambassador in Vienna, 57, 371. 

Bohemia, 464. 

Bois de Vincennes, 137; court at, 139. 

Bolwiller, plans recovery of Metz, 301, 
302. See also Cardinal's War. 

Bonneval, 161. 

Bordeaux, 27, 408; saved by Montluc, 
151; association of, 213, 214; court 
at, 255, 271; Huguenot plot in, 368; 
massacre of St. Bartholomew at, 450; 
Alenjon demands, 508. See also 
Chateau Trompette. 

Bouillon, duke of, 126; neutrality of, 162; 
activity of, in Low Countries, 315; 
disaffection of, 375; Spain's anxiety 
over presence of, at Sedan, 472; fear of 
co-operation of, with Louis of Nassau 
and prince of Conde, 476; death of, 
498. 

Boulogne, demanded by Huguenots, 

332, 345- 

Bourbon. See Antoine of Bourbon. 

Bourbon, Charles, cardinal of, accom- 
panies Elizabeth of Valois to Spain, 
7, 73; reproaches Catherine de 
Medici, 288; assumes pay of reit- 
ers, 346; with army in Saintonge, 382. 

Bourbonnais, famine slight in, 288. 

Bourdillon, marshal, succeeds Marshal 
Termes, 182. 

Bourges, 64, 127, 142; siege of, 159- 
61; Catholic league established at, 
354; massacre of St. Bartholomew 
at, 450. 

Brabant, 265, 268. 

Brie, troops levied in, 160; wheat dear 
in, 286; Catholic army in, 334. 

Brille, capture of, by Beggars of the 
Sea, 444. 



Brissac, marshal, 7; transferred from 
Picardy to Normandy, 60; Philip II 
writes to, 97; hostility of Huguenots 
toward, 98; relations with T;ium- 
virate, 98; resigns, 126; charged with 
corrupt practice, 140; in Rouen, 
182; quits Paris for Normandy, 199; 
mentioned, 350; defeats viscounts 
in Perigord, 396. 

Brittany, 31, 45, 76, 146, 286. 

Brochart, Huguenot commander at 
Sancerre, 372. 

Brotherhood of Catholics in France, 
proposed at Council of Trent by 
cardinal of Lorraine, 211. See also 
League; Association; Confraternity. 

Brouage, salt staple at, 409; 415. 

Brucamonte, Don Gonzalo de, Spanish 
captain, 310. 

Bruges, capture by Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, 446. 

Bruniquel, Bernard Roger, viscount of, 
394.. 395- 

Brussels, infected with heresy, 266; 
Alva's arrival at, 312. 

Burghley, Lord, letter of Dale, English 
ambassador in France to, 232. See 
also Cecil. 

Burgundy, 124, 132, 148, 329; troops 
levied in, 160; petition of Estates 
for abolition of Protestant worship 
in, 234; price of wheat in, 286; 
endangered by Alva's march, 308; 
Catholic resentment in, 349; Con- 
frerie du St. Esprit in, 352, 353; 
vigilance of Tavannes in, 362; con- 
centration of troops in, 363. See 
also Tavannes; Dijon; Chalons-sur- 
Saone. 

Burie, governor of Guvenne, 36, 127, 
156. 

Busanval, 327. 

Cadillac, Catholic league formed at, 
216, 226. 

Caen, 142, 162; Huguenots of, 148; 
arrival of English money at, 188; 
massacre of St. Bartholomew at, 450. 

Cahors, 405; riot at, 133. 

Calais, capture of, 21; mentioned, 125, 
126; and Havre-de-Grace, 162; Eng- 
lish hope to recover, 163, 164; pale of , 
166; Spanish fear lest England ac- 
quire, 181; Havre might have been 
another, 185; England proposes to 



INDEX 



609 



trade Havre and Dieppe for, igS; 
English right to, 199; France claims 
forfeiture of English rights to, 203; 
restitution of, demanded by English 
ambassador, 204; Spain's anxiety 
over, 267; French alarm over, 316; 
Conde demands, 332. 

Candalle, activity of, in Guyenne, 226; 
helps to form league of Agen, 254; 
plans to attack Montgomery at Con- 
dom, 407. 

Capuchins, 251. 

Cardinal's War, 303. See also Metz; 
Lorraine, cardinal of. 

Carlos, Don, son of Philip II: proposed 
marriage of, with Mary Stuart, 94, 
245, 246; madness of, 246; proposed as 
husband of Marguerite of Valois, 
424; death of, 424. 

Carnavalet, Madame, 428. 

Cartagena, Alva sails from, 309. 

Casimir, count palatine, 158; reiters 
of, 333, 360; hopes of Huguenots 
pinned on, 335; reported to be com- 
ing, 382; ambition "to Calvinize 
the world," 444. See also Count 
Palatine. 

Castlenau, mission of, to margrave of 
Baden, 380. 

Castres, resists Joyeuse, 348; Mont- 
gomery at, 405, 406. 

Cateau-Cambresis, Treaty of, 5, 199, 
203, 441; commercial importance of, 
204. 

Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, 
I ; policy after conspiracy of Amboise, 
42, 64; Venetian ambassador's de- 
scription of, 65 ; policy of, after death 
of Francis II, 72, 73; has custody of 
seal, 74; control of government by, 75; 
adroitness of, 77; shrewdness of, 91; 
fears Spanish intervention, 94; vacilla- 
tion of, 96; invites bishop of Valence 
to preach at court, 98; alarmed by 
formation of Triumvirate, 99; labors 
for Huguenot cause, 102; warned 
against policy of toleration no; not 
intimidated, 119, 122; in fear of 
Guises, 124; endeavors to maintain 
balance of parties, 126; perseveres 
in policy of toleration, 128; - up- 
braided by Chantonnay, 133; de- 
mands his recall, 133; sends St. 
Andre back to his government, 133; 
offended at Cardinal Tournon, 133; 



fear lest Guises seize King, 137; 
overruled by constable and king of 
Navarre, 139; surrenders to Trium- 
virate and asks aid of Spain, 143; 
seizes church plate, 146; supports 
Triumvirate, 150; wants to end 
first civil war by composition, 172; 
activity after battle of Dreux, 182; 
justifies Edict of Amboise, 195; pays 
Coligny's reiters, 198; determines 
to push war against England, 199; 
appeals to Paris for loan, 200; enter- 
prise in siege of Flavre, 201; char- 
acter of, 202; in supreme control, 206; 
demands dissolution of Catholic 
leagues, 225, 226; seeks to pacify 
the kingdom, 232; quarrels with D' 
Andelot, 238; co-operates with the 
Guises, 243; ambition of, 247; 
offends Philip II by favorable policy 
toward Turks, 248; Catholic pressure 
upon, 249, 250; visits Nostradamus, 
the astrologer, 251; alarmed at growth 
of Catholic leagues, 255, 256; inter- 
view with Alva at Bayonne, 277; am- 
bition of, in Poland, 283; reproached 
by Cardinal Bourbon, 288; haunted 
by conspiracy of Amboise, 288; 
weakness of, 293, 294; demands 
withdrawal of Roggendorf, 295; 
espouses policy of political Hugue- 
nots, 295; alarmed at Alva's march, 
307; accused of stealing Spanish 
ambassador's cipher, 317, n.; looks 
to Alva for aid, 328; sends Ligne- 
rolles "to practice the stay of the 
reiters," 330; urged to make over- 
tures after battle of St. Denis, 333; 
anxiety over Emperor's claim to 
Three Bishoprics, 336; asks aid of 
Spanish troops against the reiters, 
338; popular rage against, 343; 
consults Nonio, the astrologer, 344; 
accuses Montluc of secret dealings 
with Philip II, 351; reproaches 
Aumale for negligence and cowardice, 
382; joins arm}^ in Saintonge, 382; 
approves feigned attack on Chatel- 
lerault by duke of Anjou, 387; dis- 
appointed at Bayonne, 423; dreams 
of marrying Charles IX to elder 
daughter of the Emperor, 424; atti- 
tude of, toward proposed marriage of 
duke of Anjou and Queen Elizabeth, 
427; double policy of, 435; jealous 
of Coligny, 440; responsibility of, for 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, 449, 
452, 453; interview of, with Louis of 



6io 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



Nassau at Blamont, 463; folly of Po- 
lish ambition of, 467; tries to bribe 
La Noue, 477; refuses to put Henry 
of Navarre to death, 481; assumes 
regency on death of Charles IX, 484; 
anxiety for return of Henry III, 488; 
sinister influence over Henry III, 
488, 489; Spanish troops offered to, 
by Requesens, 494; tries to wheedle 
Alengon, 505; illness of, 511. 

Cathohc lines in August, 1562, 161. 

Catholics, violence of, 240. 

Caudebec, revolts, 148; mentioned, 

164, 177, 181. 
■ Caumont, viscount of, 394. 

Celles, Coligny at, 182. 

Cevennes, viscounts in, 395. 

Chalais, 379, 406. 

Chalons-sur-Marne, 147, 232. 

Chalons-sur-Saone, saved by Tavannes, 
149; mentioned, 154, 157; organi- 
zation of La fraternite des catho- 
hques at, 353, 354. 

Chambery, Alva's route through, 308. 

Chambre ardente, 11. 

Chambres mi-parties, 393. 

Champagne, 45, 52, 76, 92, 202, 329, 
344; troops levied in, 168; reiters 
meeting in, 200; Protestantism in, 
228; price of wheat in, 286; endan- 
gered by Alva's march, 308; ravages 
of Huguenot army in, 333;, Catholic 
army in, 334; Catholic league 
formed in, 354; Aumale's army in, 
369; ravages of reiters in, 507. 

Champagne, Fair of, devastated by 
reiters, 420 and note. 

Chantilly, Marshal Montmorency goes 
to, 357- 

Chantonnay, Perrinot, sieur de, 
brother of Cardinal Granvella, Span- 
ish ambassador in France, 25, 32, n.; 
endeavors to persuade Antoine of 
Bourbon, 90, 100-2; threatens Cath- 
erine de Medici, 97; directs Trium- 
virate, 131; son of, is christened, 133; 
upbraids Catherine de Medici, 133; 
recall of, demanded, 133; protests 
against Chancellor L'Hopital, 137; 
tries to intimidate Catherine de 
Medici, 176, 195; traverses south of 
France in disguise, 245, n. ; with- 
drawal of, from France, 266; aids 
plot to recover Metz, 302; trans- 
ferred to Vienna, 424. 



Charenton, 159; capture of Pont de, 
by Conde, 326; Conde withdraws 
from, 332; Huguenot demand for 
freedom of worshiping at, 416. 

Charles III of Lorraine, marries sister 
of Charles IX, 249. 

Charles V, Emperor, 3, 55, 85, 124; 
fails to capture Tunis, 132. 

Charles V, Free Companies in reign of, 
396. 

Charles VII, Pragmatic Sanction of, 
116; grants silk monopoly to Lyons, 
234; mentioned, 252. 

Charles VIII, fiscal policy of, 83. 

Charles IX, King of France (1560- 
74): accession of, 71, 74, 123; begins 
reign with policy of toleration, 94; 
coronation of, loi ; urged to stand fast 
in the faith by Cardinal Tournon, 
III; demands repression of sedition 
in Agenois, 134; fear lest he be 
seized by Guises, 136; removed to 
Blois, 137; asks aid of Philip II, 143; 
, unable to control Paris, 154; bitter 
against cardinal of Lorraine, 196; ma- 
jority of, declared, 208; reply of, about 
Calais, 204; industrial crisis in reign 
of, 217; remonstrance of, to Pope, 
230; purpose of tour of provinces, 
232; Guises want him to marry Mary 
Stuart, 244; wants to marry a Haps- 
burg princess, 247; proposed mar- 
riage of, with Queen Elizabeth, 249; 
threatens to dispossess the Rohans, 
288; advocates administrative re- 
form, 290; proposes amendments to 
Edict of Amboise, 295; asked to 
permit Spanish troops to cross France 
to Flanders, 299, 305; Spain fears ap- 
peal of, to Huguenots, 302; strength- 
ens garrisons in Languedoc and 
Provence, 306; sends troops into 
Lyonnais, 307; Huguenots attempt 
to Iddnap, 319-21 (see Meaux); 
dares not accept offers of Philip II, 
330; insists in disarmament of Hugue- 
nots, 333; argues with count pala- 
tine, 335; reply to Conde, 341; 
poverty of, 344; reply of, to demands 
of Huguenots, 345; accuses cardinal 
of Lorraine, 350; promises to main- 
tain peace of Longjumeau, 350; 
displaces Marshal Montmorency as 
governor of Paris, 358; to marry 
daughter of Emperor, 364; views 
renewal of war with alarm, 375; at 
siege of St. Jean-d'Angely, 390; 



INDEX 



6ii 



petitioned to make peace by his coun- 
cil, 391; Teligny sent to, 392; pro- 
tests against peace made to, 394; goes 
to Mont St. Michel, 413; secret deal- 
ings of, with Montluc, 413; influence 
of battle of Arnay-le-Duc upon, 416; 
offers to yield La Rochelle, Angou- 
leme, and Montauban, 416; offers 
to trade Perpignan or Lansac for 
La Charite, 416; infractions of Peace 
of St. Germain by, 420; promises 
reform of taxes, 421; imposes new 
taxes, 421; marries Elizabeth of 
Austria, 424; releases duke of Lor- 
raine from vassalage to France for 
duchy of Bar, 425 ; vague replies of, 
to demands of Spain, 426; character 
of, 438; haughty reply of, to Alava, 
441; signs Treaty of Blois, 445; letter 
of, found on person of Genlis prom- 
ising aid in liberation of Low Coun- 
tries, 447; consternation of, at failure 
of Genlis' expedition, 448; overtures 
of, to La Rochelle, 454; unsuccessful 
in recruiting footmen in Germany, 
454; sends duke of Longueville to 
La Noue, 467; signs peace with La 
Rochelle, 459, 460; jealous of Guises, 
462; inclines to aid Netherlands 
again, 462; warned by Morvilliers, 
468; plans to convene Huguenot 
deputies of Languedoc and Dauphine, 
469; ill of small- pox, 469; forbids 
circulation of bad money in France, 
470; makes sale of new offices, 470; 
orders census to be taken in each 
bailiwick, 471; sends Torcy and 
Turerine to Montgomery, 472; tract 
against, comparing to sultan, 475; 
plot to seize at St. Germain, 477, 478; 
urged to execute Cosse and Mont- 
morency, 481; last illness of, 483, 484. 

Charron, provost to Paris, Henry Ill's 
threat to, 522. 

Chartres, 36, 161, 181; Catholic camp 
at, 153;- Conde retires toward, 177; 
Conde imprisoned at, 182; court 
leaves, 185; gunpowder factory at, 
blows up, 186. 

Chartres, vidame of, suspected of 
conspiracy, 51; arrested, 59; im- 
prisoned in Bastille, 62; prosecution 
of, 69; sister of, 126; agrees to 
deliver Havre-de-Grace to English, 
164. 

Chateaudun, 36, i6r, 181; gunpowder 
factory at, blows up, 186. 



Chateau-Thierry, Swiss at, 320; mil- 
itary base of Catholics, 373; granted 
to Casimir, count palatine, 521 and n. 

Chatelet, 3. 

Chatellerault, duchy of, given to young 
duke of Guise, 206; taken by Hugue- 
nots, 384; attacked by duke of 
Anjou, 387. 

Chatillon, cardinal-bishop of Beauvais, 
8, 93, 350; proposal to expel from 
country, 132; banishment of, de- 
manded, 153; feud of, with Guises, 
206, 207; resignation of, demanded, 
289; sent to confer about peace, 344; 
learns of plot of Guises, 350. See also 
Coligny; Andelot. 

Chatillons, young duke of Guise refuses 
to be reconciled with, 293. 

Chaudien, Protestant pastor in Paris, 
64. 

Chavigny, 255; taken by Conde, 350. 

Chinon, taken by duke of Guise, 154. 

Ciappini Vitelle, marquis of, Italian 
commander, 311. 

Claudine, sister of Charles IX, wife of 
Charles III of Lorraine, 249. 

Clergy, supports Guises, 9; demands 
at States-General of Orleans, 77, 78; 
contribute 100,000 ecus, 200; loan 
made by, 329; heavy taxation im- 
posed upon, 344; offer to maintain 
war at their own epxense, 417. See 
also States-General. 

Clerie, 152; combat at, 182. 

Cluny, Hotel de, belonging to the 
Guises, attacked by a mob, 47. 

Coconnas, arrest and execution of, 480, 
481. 

Cocqueville, failure of his invasion of 
Artois, 360. 

Cognac, 283, 379, 405, 406. 

Coligny, Gaspard de, admiral of France, 
6; captured at battle of St. Quentin, 8; 
policy of, after conspiracy of Amboise, 
42; sent to Normandy, 43; offers 
Huguenot petiton, 52, 54, 73; in- 
fluence of, 79; at Council of Fontaine- 
bleau, 94; efi'orts of, for toleration, 
103; plot against, 119; made governor 
of Normandy, 126; counsels Cath- 
erine de Medici, 128; Spanish ambas- 
sador objects to presence of, at court, 
133; Antoine of Bourbon offended 
with, 133; joins Conde at Meaux 
after massacre of Vassy, 137; appears 



6l2 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



before Paris, 137; at Montreuil, 138; 
aims to seize line of Loire River, 138; 
overtures to, 139; destroys bridge at 
Jargeau, 151; at Orleans, 154; soli- 
cits English aid, 162; in battle of 
Dreux, 179; at Villefranche, 181; 
crosses Loire, 182; tries to join 
earl of Warwick in Havre, 185; 
confers with Throckmorton, 185; 
in fear of his own reiters, 184, 187; 
asks aid of Queen Elizabeth, 187; 
desperate position of, 187; Madame 
de Guise refuses to recognize acquit- 
tal of, for murder of duke of Guise, 
206; violence of Paris toward, 206, 
n.; not responsible for surrender of 
Havre-de-Grace to England, 224, n.; 
Alva advises his execution, 274; at 
Moulins, 289; hypocritical recon- 
cilation of, with cardinal of Lorraine, 
289; Spain demands banishment of, 
300; unadmirable conduct of, 316; 
retires from court, 317; tries to pre- 
vent Strozzi's coming, 329; saying 
of, 361; attempt to capture, 365; 
plans activity in south of France, 
375 ; becomes actual leader of Hugue- 
nots after death of prince of Conde, 
378; hopes to join duke of Deux- 
ponts, 379; illness of, 383; fights 
battle of La Roche I'Abeille, 383; 
aims to take Saumur, 385; besieges 
Poitiers, 385-87; wounded at battle 
of Moncontour, 389; falls back on 
Niort after battle of Moncontour, 
389; price put upon head of, 390; 
confers with Teligny, 392; joins 
Montgomery, 402; assumes offen- 
sive, 405; captures Port Ste. Marie, 
406; and plans to winter there, 408; 
great blunder of, 410; besieges Tou- 
louse, 410; illness of, 411; at Mont- 
brison, 416; fights battle of Arnay- 
le-Duc, 416; urges marriage of 
Henry of Navarre with Marguerite 
of Valois and that of duke of Anjou 
to Queen Elizabeth, 422, 430 ff.; 
honorably received in Paris by Charles 
IX, and made member of Conseil du 
Roi, 439 and. n.; persuades Charles 
IX to sign Treaty of Blois, 445; up- 
braids Charles IX for abandonment of 
Flemish enterprise, 448; attempt to 
kill, on August 22, 449; murdered in 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, 450. 
See also Dreux; Jarnac; Moncon- 
tour; Arnay-le-Duc; St. Bartholo- 
mew, etc. 



Colloquy of Poissy. See Poissy. 

Cologne, elector of, 467. 

Cominges, Bernard Roger, viscount of 
Bruniquel, 394. 

Commendone, cardinal, at Polish Diet. 
464. 

Commerce: of Low Countries, 163, 267; 
through Havre-de-Grace, 203; Treaty 
of Cateau-Cambresis, 204; of Lyons, 
233, 234; influence of civil war upon, 
235; exportation of grain from 
Lombardy, 241; commercial prom- 
ises of Spain, 242; cloth-trade of 
England, 268, 269; wine trade of 
France, 267-69; free trade in grain, 
286; high price of wine, 287; Hugue- 
nots enter Flanders as merchants, 
299; in salt, 309; Fair of Champagne 
devastated by reiters, 420 and n.; 
EngUsh in Flanders, 436, 437; Poland 
covets Hanseatic, 466; strife between 
Paris and Rouen, 470. See also 
Embden; Cateau-Cambresis. 

Compiegne, endangered by William of 
Orange, 370; Charles IX ill of small- 
pox at, 469. 

Conciergerie, 3; La Mole and Coconnas 
imprisoned in, 480. 

Concordat of 15 16, 84, 196. 

Conde, Louis de Bourbon, prince of: 
sent to Flanders, 7; accused of con- 
spiracy of Amboise, 40; confers with 
Damville, 46; suspected of new con- 
spiracy, 51; arrested, 62; prosecu- 
tion of, 69-71 ; approached by Cather- 
ine de Medici, 72; acquittal of, 91, 92; 
seeks government of Champagne, 92; 
relations of, with Antoine of Bourbon, 
100; plot against, 119; sends Hot- 
man to Germany, 122; sent into 
Picardy, 126; counsels Catherine de 
Medici, 128; proposal to banish, 132; 
in Paris when duke of Guise arrives 
after massacre of Vassy, 136; leaves 
Paris for Meaux, 137; appears 
before Paris, 137; occupies St. 
Cloud, 138; complains of Guises, 
139; assumes command of Huguenot 
forces, 140; controls middle Loire, 
141; weakened by Grammont's 
failure to reach Orleans, 146; Paris 
fears coming of, 147, 149; demands 
withdrawal of Triumvirate, 150; 
refuses conditions of peace, 153; 
retires into Orleans, 153; thinks of 
retiring into Gasconv, 154; solicits 



INDEX 



613 



English aid, 162; overtures made to, 
168; hope that he may succeed 
Antoine of Bourbon as lieutenant- 
general, 170, 171; advances upon 
Paris, 172; wheedled by Catherine 
de Medici and the Guises, 174; fails 
to attack Paris, 176; retires to 
Normandy, 177; falls back on 
Chartres, 177; captured at battle of 
Dreux, 179; imprisoned at Chartres, 
182; promised post of lieutenant-gen- 
eral, 190, 199; anger of, at Catherine 
de Medici, 206; project of, to marry 
Mary Stuart, 243; liaison of, with 
Isabel de Limeuil, 245, n., 249; 
Alva advises execution of, 274; main- 
tains court preacher to anger of 
Catholics, 288; marries Mile, de 
Longueville, 289; suspected of inter- 
course with William of Orange, 297; 
unadmirable conduct of, 316; retires 
from court, 317; captures Pont de 
Charenton, 326; extraordinary de- 
mands of, 328, 329; aims to over- 
throw Guises, 329; precarious posi- 
tion of, before Paris, 331; demands 
Calais, Boulogne, and Metz, 332; 
withdraws to Troyes after battle of 
St. Denis, 333; attempts to effect 
junction with reiters, 333; camped 
between Sens and Troyes, 339; joins 
reiters, 339; demands of, in favor 
of Huguenots, 340; power of, 342; 
appoints Cardinal Chatillon, bishop 
of Valence, and Teligny, to confer 
about peace, 344; complains of 
outrages on Huguenots, 362; mani- 
festo of, 365; takes Champigny and 
falls back on Loudun, 369; defeated 
at Jazeneuil, 369, n.; attempts to 
join William of Orange, 370; marches 
to relief of Sancerre, 372; killed at 
battle of Jarnac, 376; jewels of, are 
pawned, 378; makes viscount of 
Rapin governor of Montauban, 395. 
See also Dreux; Jarnac. 
Conde, prince of (the younger): with 
Henry of Navarre theoretical leader 
of Huguenot party, 378; refuses to 
compromise with the crown, 412; 
412; abjuration of, on St. Bartholo- 
mew's Day, 450; made governor of 
Picardy, 469; gets 8,000 cavalry out 
of Germany, 504; privileges in Peace 
of Monsieur, 520. 

Condom, Montgomery at, 407. 
Confraternities (Confreries), nucleus of 



local Catholic leagues, 216. See 
also Association; Brotherhood of 
Catholics; Guilds; League. 

Confrerie de Ste. Barbe, 313, n. 

Confrerie du St. Esprit, 216, 353-55. 
See also Association; Brotherhood 
of Catholics; Guild; League. 

Constance, 308. 

Correro, Venetian ambassador, de- 
scribes the Swiss at Meaux, 321. 

Cosse, marshal, in Picardy, 369; pro- 
tests against siege of St. Jean-d'An- 
gely, 390; sent to La Rochelle, 391; 
urges peace, 394; sent to recover La 
Charite, 412; Charles IX urged to 
execute, 481; arrested, 482. 

Council, General, of the church, 139. 

Council, National, question of, 57, 79, 
87. _ 

Council of Blood, 312. 

Count palatine, 373, 467; sends deputa- 
tion to France, 481; claims Three 
Bishoprics, 521; receives Chateau- 
Thierry, 521 and n. See also Ca,s\v!\\v. 

Counter-Reformation, 124, 196. 

Coutances, Montgomery lands near, 
472. 

Cracow, duke of Anjou arrives at, 467. 

Croisade, La, name, of new Catholic 
league at Toulouse, 355. See also 
League; Armagnac, cardinal of. 

Dale, Dr.. Valentine, English ambas- 
sador in France: quoted, 232; sus- 
pected by French government, 505. 

Damville, Henry de Montmorency, 
sieur de: confers with Conde, 46; 
guards Conde in prison after battle of 
Dreux, 182; strained relations of, with 
Montluc, 214; just government of, in 
Languedoc, 347; Montluc's hatred 
of, 347; moderation of, 356; in 
Paris, 357; made king's lieutenant 
in Languedoc, 383; Politique lean- 
ings of, 382; Montluc's hatred of, 
398, 400, 401, 404, 413; Montluc's 
overtures to, 403; party of, 474; 
failure of attempt to seize, 483; 
leader of joint Huguenot and Poli- 
tique party, 4S9; interviews duke of 
Savoy at Turin, 491; introduces 
Turkish fleet into Aigues Mortes, 
492; attempt to poison, 502; com- 
plicity with England suspected, 504; 



6i4 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



privileges granted to, in Peace of 
Monsieur, 521. 

Dantzig, disaffected by French election 
in Poland, 466. 

Darnley, marries Mary Stuart, 424. 

Dauphine, 38, 45, 52, 142, 147; Hugue- 
nots in, 95; militia of, 208; Hugue- 
not association in, 223; viscount of 
Rapin in, 395, 406; strength of 
Huguenots in, 461; Huguenot dep- 
uties of, 469. 

Dax, Turkish ambassador received at, 
by Catherine de Medici, 248. 

Debts, of crown, 13, 67, 208, 366, 371; 
to Swiss, 242, 371; of Charles IX, 
421. See also Finances; Loans; 
Clergy. 

De Losses, captain of Scotch Guard, 
sent to La Rochelle, 391. 

Denmark, 21; sues for French favor, 
123. 

De Retz, protest against, 492; resigns 
office as constable, 497. 

Dessay, Conde's camp at, 339. 

Deuxponts (Zweibriicken), duke of, 
159; reiters of, 370; junction of, with 
William of Orange, 373, 374; Coligny 
hopes to join, 379; enters France, 
379; captures Nevers and La Cha- 
rite, 380; death of, 383. 

Diaceto, a Florentine banker, 498. 

Diane de Poitiers, mistress of Henry II, 
6, II, n. 

Dieppe, 39, 142, 162; Calvinists in, 
95; revolts, 148; plan for recovery, 
154; precarious condition of Mont- 
gomery in, 187; England offers to 
trade Dieppe and Havre for Calais, 
198. 

Dijon, Tavannes foils attack upon, 149; 
objects to Edict of Amboise, 192; 
CathoHcs of, 288; ravages of reiters 
around, 357; mentioned, 157, 232; 
duke of Deuxponts advances upon, 
379; no massacre of St. Bartholomew 
at, 450. 

Dillenberg, proclamation of William of 
Orange from, 444. 

Dime, 81, 84. 

Dives, Coligny at, 185. 

Dole, Alva at, 311. 

Don Caratif. See Dime. 

Dordrecht, revolt of against Alva, 444. 



Dourdon, 357. 

Dreux, battle of, 157, 158, 178-81; 
Philip II's joy over, 183, 327. 

D'Scars, chamberlain of Antoine of 
Bourbon, secret agent of Guises, 24. 

Du Bourg, protests against inqui- 
sitorial practices of Henry II, 12; 
executed 13, 15; policy of crown 
after death of, 42; interceded for by 
Marguerite of Savoy, 43. 

Du Faur, protests against inquisitorial 
practices of Henry II, 12; suspended 
from office, 13. 

Du Faur (advocate of Toulouse), helps 
in formation of Catholic league at 
Toulouse, 241. 

Du Plessis, Huguenot pastor at Tours, 
64. 

Du Plessis-Mornay, memoir of, upon, 
French intervention in Netherlands, 
445; sent to England, 474; radical- 
ism of, 490. 

Duras, Huguenot leader, activity of 
in Guyenne, 156. 

Dutch, union of Huguenot and Dutch 
interests, 364. See also Flanders; 
Louis of Nassau; Low Countries; 
Netherlands; William of Orange. 

Edict of Nantes, 409. 

Edict: of Paris (1549), 10; of Fontaine- 
bleau (1550), 10; of Chateaubriand 
(1551), 10; of Compiegne (1557), n; 
of November, 1559, 14; of Romo- 
rantin (1560), 43, 104; of January, 
94, 128-31, 151, 167, 168; of Rouis- 
sillon, 250, 251; of Amboise, evasion 
of> 377' 378- ^^^ ^^^^ Amboise; 
Bergerac; January; Longjumeau; 
Monsieur; Nantes; Romorantin; 
Rouissillon. 

Edward I, war with Philip IV, 83. 

Egmont, Lamoral, count, Flemish 
noble, 12; leader of Flemish revolt, 
215; Spain attempts to draw him 
away from the Gueux, 268; associa- 
tion of, with William of Orange and 
Hoorne, 298; 312; arrested, 318; 
sent to scaffold, 361; son of, visits 
Henry III, 503. 

Elboeuf, Rene of Guise, marquis of, 
73; enters Paris, 135; surrenders 
Caen castle, 188. 

Elboeuf, duke of, sent to Poland, 497. 



INDEX 



615 



Elizabeth, Queen of England: con- 
nection of, with conspiracy of Amboise, 
41; precarious position of, 163; 
offers to aid Huguenots, 164; pro- 
crastination of, 174, 198; parsimony 
of, 184; advises Huguenots to accept 
"reasonable" terms of peace, 185; 
implored to send relief, 187; offers 
to exchange Havre and Dieppe for 
Calais, 198; her conduct compels 
Huguenots to make peace, 199; 
courtships of, 244; proposed mar- 
riage of, with Charles IX, 249; revives 
claim to Calais, 316; project of mar- 
riage of, to duke of Anjou, 358, 359; 
makes loan to Huguenots, 378; 
duplicity of, 412; marriage nego- 
tiations of, with duke of Anjou, 422, 
428-30; marriage negotiations of, with 
duke of Alengon, 430, 431; political 
problems of reign of, 432-34; re- 
pudiates Treaty of Blois, 448; 
indirectly responsible for massacre 
of St. Bartholomew, 449, n. i; enig- 
matical policy of, 455. 

Elizabeth of Austria, marriage of, to 
Charles IX, 424. 

Elizabeth of Valois, daughter of Henry 
II and queen of Spain: married to 
Philip II, i; goes to Spain, 24; 
dowry of, 207; gives birth to still-born 
twins, 251; at Bayonne, 278; death 
of, 364, n. 424. 

Embden, staple at, 269. 

Emperor, revives claim to Three Bish- 
oprics, 336; Charles IX to marry 
daughter of, 364, 374; hostility of, 
to France, 382; refuses to consider 
marriage of his daughter to Charles 
IX, 393; asked to stop progress of 
Protestant reiters, 393; makes truce 
with Turks, 464; interest in Poland, 
464. See also, Ferdinand; Maxi- 
milian; Three Bishoprics. 

England (English), contrasted with 
Spain, 123; aid expected from, 162; 
commercial interests in Low Coun- 
tries, 163; occupy Havre-de-Grace, 
165; "adversary of," 198; and PhiUp 
II, 245; adventurers flock to La 
Rochelle, 372; alliance with France 
proposed, 440, 441; dares not break 
with Spain, 455; treaty with William 
of Orange, 463, n.; Du Plessis- 
Mornay sent to, 474. See also 
Elizabeth, Queen; Commerce; Dale; 



Norris; Smith ;_Throckmorton; Treaty 
of Blois. 

Este, Hippolyte d', cardinal of Ferrara. 

See Ferrara. 
Estouteville, 115, n. 2. 
Etampes, duke of, 146. 
Etampes, Protestant camp near, 174; 

recovered by duke of Guise, 181; 

granary of Paris, 327. 
Evreux, 177. 

Famine, 286. See also "Hard Times;" 
Plague; Commerce. 

Ferdinand, petitioned by Margaret of 
Parma, 299, 374. See also Emperor; 
Three Bishoprics. 

Ferdinand of Aragon, ancestors of 
viscounts in war against, 395. 

Ferrara, Hippolyte d' Este, cardinal of: 
opposed by Chancellor L'Hopital, 
116; Hkely to succeed his brother as 
duke of, 423 ; marriage o^^, with Mar- 
guerite of Valois proposed, 423. 

Finances, early history of French, 81 £f., 
200; reform of, 292; of Henry 
III, 498. See also Clergy; Debts; 
Dime; Estates-General; Henry II; 
Loans; Swiss. 

Fismes, duke of Guise wounded at 
battle of, 506. 

Flanders, gunpowder brought from, 
186, 188; revolt in, 265; change in 
nature of revolt in, 312, 313; 2000 
troops from, arrive in Paris, 335; 
trade with England, 436, 437. See 
also Alva; Artois; Brabant; Eg- 
mont; Gueux; Hoorne; Low Coun- 
tries; Valenciennes; William of 
Orange. 

Florida, massacre of French colony in, 
299, 300. See also Menendez. 

Flushing, revolt of, 444; fleet of, cap- 
tures Spanish merchantmen, 446. 

Foix, Paul de, pope refuses to receive, 
469. 

Fontainebleau, council at (1560), 54, 
52, 65, 89, 94, 117, 333; court goes 
to, 137; Conde aims to cut off, from 
Paris, 138; court removes from, to 
Melun, 139; mentioned, 209. 

Fontarabia, Philip II strengthens, 146. 

Fontenay (near Toul), Alva at, 311. 

Forez, Coligny in, 411. 



6i6 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



Fourquevaux, French ambassador in 
Spain, 306, 307; succeeds St. Sulpice, 
283; embarrassed by massacre of 
French in Florida, 300; urges Charles 
IX to be cautious, 309; reply to 
papal nuncio, 315; urges marriage 
of Charles IX to Princess Anne of 
Hapsburg and that of Marguerite of 
Valois to Don Carlos, 424. See also 
Alva; Florida. 

France, social structure of, in sixteenth 
century, 18, 19; relations with Den- 
mark, 123; possibility of war in, 
132; and Philip II, 245; William of 
Orange enters, 369; state of, de- 
scribed by Sir Thomas Hoby, 294; 
alliance with England proposed, 
440-41; prospect of war with Spain, 
443- 

Franche Comte, 124, 246, 301; Spain 
fears French attack on, 418; Hugue- 
not plot in, 492, 493. 

Francis I (1515-47), 69, 291; financial 
policy of, 81-85; fortifications of, 
around Paris, 173; influence of, upon 
silk industry, 234. 

Francis II, King of France (1559-60), 
4, 6, 8, 11; character of, 17, 22; appeals 
to Philip II, 59; death of, 70, 76, 93, 
94, 123. 

Fratwo-Gallia, a pamphlet by Hotman, 

475- 

Frankfort, duke of Anjou passes 
through, 467. 

Frankfort Fair, William of Orange at, 
446. 

Fraternite des catholiques de Chalons- 
sur-Saone, 353, 354- See also Asso- 
ciation; Brotherhood of Catholics 
in France; Confraternity; Con- 
Irerie; League. 

Freiburg, treaty of, 242; league with 
Bern and Valais, 308. 

Frene, messenger of Parlement of 
Paris, assassinated, 15. 

Froelich, Swiss colonel, 162. 

Gabelle, 82; Guyenne exempt from, 8. 
Gaillac, destruction of, by viscounts, 

396- 
Galilean church, liberties of, 196. 
Garde, De la, 294. 
Garonne River, Huguenots masters of, 

at Port Ste. Marie, 406. 



Garris, siege of, 355. 

Gascony, 41, 286; Conde thinks of 
retiring to, 154; germ of Catholic 
League in, 226; Protestantism in, 228; 
influence of provincial traditions 
upon, 409. 

Geneva, exiles from, 44, 94; "Geneva 
party" among Huguenots, 191; in- 
fluence upon Lyons, 227, 233; 
preachers from, in Netherlands, 265; 
fears joint attack of Spain and 
Savoy upon, 308. 

Genlis, captures Mons, 446; relief 
column of, intercepted, 447; letter of 
Charles IX found upon person of, 
447- 

Genoa, syndicate of, 296; Spain bor- 
rows ships from, 306; Alva at, 309. 

GenouUac, administrative corruption 
of, 82. 

Germany, activity of Guises in, 48, 52, 
85; return of French e.xiles from, 94; 
Smalkald war in, 121; chief Protes- 
tant princes of, 121, n.; Hotman sent 
to, 122; Huguenots await aid from, 
158; troops sent to duke of Aumale 
from, 162; refugees from lower, 200; 
Protestants of, 243; Louis of Nas- 
sau's dealings with Protestant princes 
of, 299; attitude of Protestant princes 
of, to French civil wars, 374; reiters 
levied in, 368; looked to for assist- 
ance, 380; Protestants, assistance 
from, 418; Charles IX unable to 
recruit in, 454; Schomberg's mis- 
sions to, 463, 467, 504; French 
ambition in, 467, 468; feeling in, 
because of St. Bartholomew, 468. 

Ghent, Alva determines to retire his 
forces into, 444. 

Gien, 161. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, captures Sluys 
and Bruges, 446. 

Gondi, bishop of Paris, part of, in mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew, 450. 

Gordes, governor of Dauphine, 396. 

Gourdon, viscount of, 394. 

Grammont, 126; prevented from 
reaching Orleans, 146; Alva advises 
execution of, 274; proposal to neu- 
tralize Beam under, 399. 

Grands Jours d'Auvergne, 291. 

Granvella, cardinal, 12; gives warning 
of conspiracy of Amboise, 32; favors 



INDEX 



617 



international Catholic league, 211; 
asserts impracticability of helping 
Triumvirate, 212; discovers Hugue- 
not intrigues in Flanders, 264; 
implores Philip II to come to Nether- 
lands, 264; retires to Besanfon, 265; 
advises Spanish pressure upon France 
266; ridicules rumor of Mont- 
gomery's coming to Flanders, 298; 
secretly petitioned by cardinal of 
Lorraine, 304; comment on Flemish 
revolution, 312. 

Gravelines, fortified, 267, 268, 316. 
Gray, Alva at, 311. 
Gregory XIII. See St. Bartholomew. 
Grenoble, 147, 154. 
Grisons, Bellievre sent to, 241, 308. 
Guernsey, governor of, 167. See also 
Leighton. 

Gueux, William of Orange and Louis 
of Nassau allied with, 297; formation 
of 312-14; masters of the sea, 444. 
See also, Egmont; William of Orange. 

Guilds, revolution in, 217^23. See 
also Confraternity; Confrerie; In- 
dustry; Leagues. 

Guise, duchess of, widow of Francis: 
refuses to recognize acquittal of 
Coligny, 206; marries duke of 
Nemours, 293. 

Guise, Francis, duke of, 5 ; in charge of 
war office, 6; opposition to, 9; charac- 
ter of, 20; captures Metz and Calais, 
21; lieutenant-general, 36; leaves 
court, 73; loses influence, 75; letter of, 
to Philip II, 97; Huguenot hatred of, 
98; peculations of, 98, 141; at Collo- 
quy of Poissy, 112; leaves court 114; 
conference of, with duke of Wiirt- 
temberg at Saverne, 123; respon- 
sibility for massacre of Vassy, 134, 
135, 142; enters Paris, 135, 136; 
assembles forces in Paris, 142; Conde 
demands withdrawal of, 150; takes 
Loudun and Chinon, 154; wounded 
at siege of Rouen, 169; fortifies 
Paris, 173; holds Seine River, 177; 
follows Conde's retreat, 177; re- 
pulsed at Clerie, 182; besieges Or- 
leans, 186; assassinated, 188, 189, 
216, 264. 

Guise, Henry, duke of, made grand 
master, 206; given duchy of Chatel- 
lerault, 206; returns to court, 290; 
refuses to be reconciled with Chatil- 



lons, 293; in Champagne, 329; 
follows Conde, 333; organizes op- 
position, 349; establishes Catholic 
league in Champagne, 354; defends 
Poitiers, 385-87; wounded at Mon- 
contour, 389; makes love to Mar- 
guerite of Valois, 419; marries 
princess of Porcien, 419; part of, in 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, 450-53; 
Charles IX's jealousy of, 462 ; accuses 
Montmorency of plot to assassinate, 
473; urges arrest of Montmorency, 
479; feud with Montmorency, 491- 
94; Spanish soldiery flock to, 494; 
feud with duke of Montpensier, 498; 
ordered to resist coming of the reiters, 
506; wounded, 506. 
Guises, ancestry and wealth of, 20; 
ambition of, 21; usurpation of, 27; 
fear assassination, 27, n.; alarmed at 
conspiracy of Amboise, 32; accuse 
Conde, 40; pursue Visieres and 
Maligny, 41; feud of, with Montmor- 
encys, 45, 50, 73, 333, n., 356, 357; 
and war in Scotland, 48; activity in 
Germany, 48, 221; popular feeling 
against, 50; make changes in pro- 
vincial administration, 62, 63; griev- 
ances against, 65, 66; designs of, to 
crush Huguenots, 69 ; fury of, at release 
of Conde, 71, 72; aim of, to control re- 
gency, 72, n.; overtures of, to Antoine 
of Bourbon, 73; leave the court, 73; 
adverse condition of, after death of 
Francis II, 91; make use of aspira- 
tions of Antoine of Bourbon, 96; 
leave court, 119; Catherine de 
Medici in fear of, 124; absence of, 
from court creates suspicion, 131; fear 
lest they seize King, 137; angry at 
court's removal to Blois, 137; tyr- 
ranny of, 141; besiege Caudebec, 148; 
maladministration of, 296; interest of, 
in the "Cardinal's War," 303; secret 
negotiations with Spain, 304; con- 
template deposition of house of 
Valois, 337; plans of, thwarted by 
reiters, 339; hatred of, 343; proposi- 
tion to marry daughter of, to prince 
of Conde, 345; secret conference of, 
at Louvre, 350; plan to subjugate 
Gascony and Guyenne, 350; abuse 
Chancellor L'Hopital 357; plan to 
capture Coligny, 365; responsible 
for continuance of war, 175; feud 
with Chatillons, 206, 207; tilt with 
Chancellor L'Hopital, 210; co-op- 
erate with Catherine de Medici, 243; 



6i8 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



approach Montluc, 254, 255; dis- 
comfiture of, after peace of St. Ger- 
main, 419; endeavor to break match 
between duke of Anjou and Eliza- 
beth, 422, 423. See also Aumale, 
duke of; Elboeuf, duke of; Guise, 
duke of; Lorraine, cardinal of. 

Guitery, joins Montgomery in Nor- 
mandy, 472; his blunder ruins the 
plot to seize Charles IX, 478. 

Guyenne, Marshal Termes made gov- 
ernor of, 63; exempt from gabelle, 
85; badly infected with heresy, 95, 
127; rebellion in, 190; Catholic 
league in, 216; activity of Candalle 
in, 226; Protestantism in, 230, 283; 
early republicanism of Huguenots 
in, 326; civil war in, 347; plan of 
Montluc to deliver to Spain, 394; 
saved to Catholics by Montluc, 406; 
influence of provincial traditions 
upon, 409; Huguenot movement in, 
472. 

Gymbrois, 334. 

Haarlem, siege of, 463. 

Haguenau, grand bailiwick of, 301. 

Hainault, 267. 

Hanseatic cities. See Dantzig; Revel; 
Riga. 

Hapsburg, union of house of, 364; 
international plan to break dominion 
of, 374- 

"Hard Times," 86, 284-87, 391, 421, 
455, 456, 470, 509. See also Com- 
merce; Plague; Wheat. 

Harfleur, 162. 

Haton, Claude, quoted, 284, 285. 

Havre-de-Grace, seized by Maligny, 
148, 267; fear lest it be given to 
English, 154, 155; and Calais, 162; 
occupied by England, 165, 166; 
question of evacuation of, 185; pre- 
carious position of Warwick in, 187; 
war with England over, inevitable, 
198; Alva proposes, be put in 
Philip II's hands pending media- 
tion, 198; England proposes to trade, 
for Calais, 198; English possession 
of, jeopardizes commerce of Paris, 
200; French assault begins upon, 
201 ; difficulties of siege of, 201 ; War- 
wick agrees to surrender, 203; yielded 
to France, 204; Coligny not respon- 
sible for surrender of, to England, 



224, n.; English occupation of, 267. 
See also Warwick. 
Heidelberg, duke of Anjou passes 
through, 467. 

Hennebault, admiral, fall of, 8. 

Henry II, King of France (1547-59): 
mortally wounded in tournament with 
Montgomery, i; dies, 4; character 
of reign of, 5 ; suspected of favoring 
inquisition, 12; French exiles return 
after death of, 30; government of, 
22, 82, 85, 86; wars of, 241. 

Henry, duke of Orleans-Anjou, later 
Henry HI (1574-89): industrial 
crisis of reign of, 217; marriage of, 
to Juana of Spain proposed, 247; 
interest of, in Poland, 283; bigotry of, 
349, 350; Alva proposes marriage of, 
to queen of Portugal, 364; project 
of marriage of, to Queen Elizabeth, 
35^> 359; heutenant-general, 367; 
endeavors to prevent junction be- 
tween Conde and William of Orange, 
370; raises siege of Angouleme, 378; 
endeavors to repair his losses, 380; 
keeps the field in Saintonge, 
Angoumois, and Limousin, 381; 
wretched state of army of, 381; arms 
peasantry in Limousin, 384; with- 
draws across Vienne River, 387; 
feigns attack on Chatellerault, 387; 
fights battle of Moncontour, 388, 
389; at siege of St. Jean-d'Angely, 
390; approves Montluc's plan to 
conquer Beam, 397; marriage nego- 
tiations of, with Queen Elizabeth, 422, 
427-30; proposed marriage of, to 
Mary Stuart, 423; offered command of 
fleet against Turks, 423; part of, in 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, 450; 
prospects of, in Poland, 464; elected 
king of Poland, 465; leaves for Po- 
land, 467; Huguenot- Politique plot 
to thwart succession of, 467; leaves 
Poland, 487; arrives at Lyons, 488; 
hardens his policy toward Huguenots, 
489; determines to clear valley of 
Rhone, 490; raises siege of Livron, 
495; coronation of, 495; marries 
Louise de Vaudemont, 496; debates 
terms of peace, 501; deposed by 
Polish Diet, 502; attempts to confis- 
cate lands of the Rohans, 502; 
excesses of, 508; imposes new taxes, 
509; frivolity of, 512, 513; makes light 
of Henry of Navarre's escape, 515; 
grants Peace of Monsieur, 515-21. 



INDEX 



619 



Henry of Navarre, not permitted to go 
to mass, 133; demanded as hostage, 
139. 293; at siege of Garris, 355; 
edict of Nantes and, 409; refuses to 
make terms with the crown, 412; 
marriage of, with sister of duke of 
VViirttemberg proposed, 422; mar- 
riage of, with Marguerite of Valois pro- 
posed 383,385,422; marriage of, 442; 
abjuration of, on St. Bartholomew's 
Day, 450; opinion of, on massacre 
of St. Bartholomew, 452; arrested, 
480; escape of, 514; demands of, and 
terms granted in Peace of Monsieur, 
518, 519. 

Hoby, Sir Thomas, his description of 
France, 294. 

Holland, revolt in, 265; all lost to 
Spain except Amsterdam and Rot- 
terdam, 446. See also Louis of 
Nassau; William of Orange. 

Honfleur, captured by Aumale, 154, 
162, 177. 

Hoogstraeten, failure of his expedition, 
360. 

Hoorne, Flemish noble, leader of the 
revolt, 265; association with William 
of Orange and Egmont, 298; arrested 
318; sent to scaffold, 361. 

Hospitals, 93, n. 

Hotman, originator of conspiracy of 
Amboise, 30; author of Le Tigre, a 
pamphlet, 39, n.; on States-General 
of Orleans, 90; sent to Germany for 
aid, 122; author of Franco-Gallia, 
475- 

Huguenots, under Henry II, 10; origin 
of the word, 10, n.; "of religion," 
16, 17; "political," 16, 17, 328; early 
republicanism of, exaggerated, 19, 
324, 325; demand convocation of 
States-General, 27; in Normandy, 
38, 39; Edict of Romorantin (1560) 
and the, 44, 104; strength of, in the 
provinces, 45, 95; riot of, in Rouen, 
47, 70; and council of Fontainebleau, 
^T„ 54; overtures of, to Antoine of 
Bourbon, 63; grievances of, 65, 66; 
hope to organize States-General, 75; 
Philip II seeks to harden policy of 
France toward, 93; violence of, 95; 
hostility of, to Guises, 98; urge cause 
of toleration, 103; refuse to pay 
tithes, 118; effrontery of, 120; organ- 
ized nature of agitation of, 121; 
diplomatic negotiations of, 122, 123; 



riots of, 127; proposal to banish 
from court, 132; undismayed by mas- 
sacre of Vassy, 137; house of worship 
of, in Paris destroyed, 139; association 
of, 140, 141; destroy tax-registers 
147; demohsh Bourbon tombs at 
Moulins, 148; communication of, 
with English, 148; hostility of Paris 
to, 149; demand withdrawal of 
Triumvirate, 150; look for English 
financial aid, 152; await aid from 
Germany, 158; pillage churches, 
159; lines of, in August, 1562, 161; 
hope for English aid, 162; radicals 
among, 170; Elizabeth advises, not to 
refuse reasonable terms, 185; Eng- 
lish complication of, 196; procras- 
tination of Elizabeth compels, to make 
terms, 199; house-to-house search 
for, in Paris, 207; association of 
Languedoc, 207; disquietude, 209, 
party of, made up of working classes, 
220; organization of, 225, 319, 321-24; 
church polity of, 229; proportion of, to 
Catholics, 229, 230; alarmed at 
Charles IX's sojourn at Bar-le-Duc, 
233; confiscations imposed upon, 235; 
iconoclasm of, 236, 240; alarm of, in 
south France, 252, n.; complain of 
Candalle and league of Agen, 255; 
Pius V advocates wholesale slaughter 
of, 275; fears of, 288; influx into 
Moulins, 288; rapprochement be- 
tween, and Montmorencys, 289; prin- 
ciples of, 290; backed by Catherine 
de Medici, 295; influence of Nether- 
lands upon, 296-98; preachers of, in 
Low Countries, 297; in Netherlands, 
315; alarm of, 316; dismayed at 
arrest of Egmont and Hoorne, 318; 
exodus of, from Paris, 326; efforts of, 
to cut off Paris, 326; plunder churches 
around Paris, 327, 328; try to break 
Swiss alliance, 330; overtures of, to 
revolted Flemings, 331; capture citadel 
of Metz, 336; terms demanded by, 
340, 345 ; interest of, in Dutch revolt, 
364; proscription of, 366; spirit of, 
368; not dismayed by death of prince 
of Conde, 378; strength of, in Sain- 
tonge and Rochellois, 378; anxiety of, 
over effect of death of prince of 
Conde on foreign negotiations, 379; 
elated by capture of La Charite, 381; 
capture Chatellerault and Lusignan, 
384; besiege Poitiers, 385-87; inter- 
cept King's treasurer in Limousin, 
389; division of party between nobles 



620 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



and bourgeoisie, 391, 412; demands 
of, 392, 393; Joyeuse tries to prevent 
co-operation of, east and west of 
Rhone, 396; council at Milhaud, 
396; strength of, in Provence and 
Languedoc, 405; strength of, in 
southwestern France, 408-10; new de- 
mands of, for peace, 416; papal nuncio 
protests against, in Avignon, 417; 
demand restoration of William of 
Orange and Louis of Nassau, 417, 
feudal interests of, 417 and n. 
excluded from universities, 420; 
organization of, formed at Montauban 
in 1573, 461; deputies of, from Lan- 
guedoc and Dauphine plan to meet 
Charles IX, 469; make common cause 
with Politiques, 471; declaration of, 
of La Rochelle, 472; division in party 
of, 474; political theory of, 475, 476; 
demand of, 486; provincial system of, 
489, 490; union with Politiques, 499, 
500; relations with England, 503; 
terms of, in Peace of Monsieur, 516, 
517- 
Hyeres, court at, 251. 

Ile-de-France, 148; wheat dear in, 286; 
Huguenot leaders in, 358; Torcy 
made lieutenant-general in, 473. 

Industrjr, revolution in, 218, 219. 

Inquisition, urged in France under 
Henry II, 12; Philip II orders main- 
tenance of, in Flanders, 267. 

Interest, rates of, in fifteenth century, 
83; in sixteenth century, 85, 86, n. 

Ireland, 434. 

Italians, in battle of La Roche I'Abeille, 
383; at siege of Poitiers, 387. See 
also Strozzi. 

Ita'y, lottery introduced from, 82; 
wars in,- 220, 228; PhiHp II and, 245; 
French interests in, 453; French 
ambition in, 467. 

Jacquerie, 502. See also Peasantry. 
Jagiello house, last king of, in Poland 

dies, 464. 
Jargeau, attempt to take, 151. 
Jarnac, battle of, 376, 377, 397. 
Jazeneuil, Conde defeated at, 369, n. 
Jemmingen, Louis of Nassau defeated 

at, 361. 
Jesuits, 132 and n., 254. 
Joinville, 131, 168; duke of Deuxponts 



passes by, 379; Madame de Guise 
flees from, 502. 

Joinville, prince de, and Triumvirate, 
98. 

Joyeuse, viscount of, 125; Pius V sends 
troops to aid of, 157; campaign in 
valley of Rhone, fails to take Pont 
St. Esprit, 348; takes Loudun, 
Orsennes, and Tresques, 348; defeats 
Montbrun, 348; garrisons towns 
of Lower Languedoc and returns to 
Avignon, 348; tries to prevent co- 
operation of Huguenots on both 
banks of the Rhone River, 396; joins 
duke of Anjou, 397; blocks viscount 
of Rapin, 448; fails in attempt to 
seize Damville, 483. 

Juana, sister of Philip II, marriage 
with Henry duke of Anjou suggested, 
247, 277. 

Junius, Francis, driven from Antwerp 
297, n. 

La Charite, rising in, 156; captured by 
duke of Deuxponts, 380, 405; unsuc- 
cessfully assaulted by Lansac, 383; 
Marshal Cosse sent to recover, 405, 
416; Charles IX, offers to trade 
Perpignan or Lansac for, 416; mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew at, 450; 
duke of Alenfon demands, 508. 

La Fere, 71; duke of Alenfon demands, 
5 08 ; dispute over cession of, 511,512. 

La Ferte-sous-Jouarre, Synod of, 246. 

Lagebaston, president of parlement of 
Bordeaux, complains of conduct of 
Montluc, 226. 

Lagny, 327. 

La Haye, plots to seize La Rochelle, 
471; secedes to Politiques, 492. 

La Marche, duke of Deuxponts dies 
in, 382. 

La Mare, valet-de-chambre to Henry 
II, 8. 

La Mole, arrest and execution of, 480, 
481. 

La Mothe Gondrin, 53; killed, 147. 

Langres, duke of Deuxponts passes by, 
379; duke of Alenfon demands, 508. 

Languedoc, loans in, 83; Huguenots of, 
95, 127; militia of, 207, 208; Charles 
IX strengthens garrisons of, 306; 
civil war in, 347; Damville's govern- 
ment of, 347; Catholic league in 



INDEX 



621 



Lower, 355; towns controlled by 
Huguenots in, 362; peasantry rise 
against Huguenots, 368; viscounts in, 
395; control of Huguenots in Lower, 
405, 406; divided into two govern- 
ments by Huguenots, 461; Huguenot 
deputies of, 469. 

La Noue, captures Orleans, 331; 
seizes Lufon, 384; comes to relief of 
Niort, 384; in Saintonge, 408; 
wounded at Ste. Gemme, 415; at 
La Rochelle, 415; at Rochefort, 418; 
goes to Netherlands, 446; opinion of, 
•of St. Bartholomew, 452; moderate 
policy of, 457; overtures to, by 
Charles IX, 457; negotiations of, in 
La Rochelle, 457, 458; in Lusignan, 
472; persuades La Rochelle to join 
Politique party, 474; efforts to 
prevent joining Montgomery, 476; 
exchanged for Strozzi, 476; attempts 
to bribe, 477; takes Lusignan, 47S; 
saying of, 487. 

Lansac, Charles IX offers to trade for 
La Charite, 416. 

Lansac, sent to Trent, 196; to Rome, 

211; to Madrid, 261, 294, 350; 

repulsed in assault on La Charite, 

384. 
La Place, vilification of La Noue bv, 

458. 
Lara, Spanish ambassador at Trent, 

261. 
Larboust, baron, proposes to neutralize 

Beam, 399. 

La Rive, pastor of church at St. Palais, 

355- 
La Roche I'Abeille, battle of, 383. 

La Rochelle, president of, 77; out- 
break at, in 1542, 82; port of, 228; 
demanded by Huguenots, 345; plot 
to seize, 350; synod of, 230; arms 
secretly stored at, 363; secret plan 
to attack, 365; king sends peace 
envoys to, 391; townsmen of, 391, 
392; sea power of Huguenots at, 

. 408, 409; La Noue at, 415; Charles 
IX offers to yield, 416; aids Dutch, 
426; naval preparations at, in favor 
of Dutch, 440; terms of peace 
granted by Charles IX, 459, 460; 
reply of, to Charles IX, 454; turns to 
England for aid, 454; siege of, 455- 
59; radical party in, 458; plot to 
betray, 471. 



Lausanne, treaty of, 309. 

La Valette, plans to attack Mont- 
gomery at Condom, 407. 

League, Gray, 242. See also Switzer- 
land. 

League, Holy, 212, 254, 259; interest 
of Spain information of, 523, 524. 

League, idea of Catholic, favored by 
Granvella, 211; provincial, 212; of 
Agen, 215, 254; in Anjou and Maine, 
216; at Toulouse, 214, 215, 225; 
influence of guilds upon, 223; per- 
nicious activity of Catholic, 251; in 
Languedoc, 253; Montluc's advice 
concerning, 256-58; forbidden by 
ordonnance of Moulins, 259; over- 
tures to Philip II for formation of, 
304; Holy League, establishment of 
304; between Bern, Freiburg, and 
Valois, 308; Philip II's interest in 
provincial leagues, 351; develop- 
ment of Holy League, 351, 352; 
Ligue chretienne et royale in Berry, 
354; in Anjou and Maine, 354; 
revival of, at Toulouse, 354, 355; 
at St. Palais, 355; Politique league 
formed in Burgundy, 502. See also 
Association; Brotherhood of Catho- 
lics; Confrerie; Guilds. 

League of the Public Weal (1465), 49. 

League of Toulouse, 397. 

Lectoure, siege of, 215, 408. 

Legate, papal, advises recourse to arms, 
103. See also Ferrara; Salviati; Santa 
Croce. 

Leighton, English captain, at siege of 
Rouen, 167. 

Lepanto, battle of, 422. 

L'Hopital, Michel de, chancellor: made 
chancellor, 43; author of Edict of 
Romorantin, 44; at council of 
Fontainebleau, 53; pleads for har- 
mony at States-General of Orleans, 
76, 77; influence of, 79; labors for 
toleration, 103; counsels Catherine 
de Medici, 128; proposal to expel 
from country, 132; Chantonnay 
protests against, 137; protests against 
findings of Council of Trent, 210; 
tilt with Guises, 210; policy toward 
the guilds, 221; Alva's objection to, 
278; supports petition in favor of 
Huguenots, 28S; advocates reform, 
290, 291, 296; favors changes in 



622 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



Edict of Amboise, 318; sent to 
confer with Conde, 328; abused by 
Guises, 357; clashes with cardinal of 
Lorraine, 366, 367; dismissal of, 367. 

Libourne, Montluc thinks of retiring 
to, 403, 408. 

LigneroUes, sent "to practice the stay 
of the reiters," 330; sent to count 
palatine, 335. 

Limeuil, Isabella de, liaison of Conde 
with, 245, n., 249. 

Limoges, Sebastian de I'Aubespine, 
bishop of. See Aubespine. 

Limousin, duke of Anjou in, 372, 382; 
treasurer of, intercepted by Hugue- 
nots, 389; no massacre of St. Barthol- 
omew at, 450; Huguenot movement 
in, 472. 

Lithuania, secedes from Poland, 466. 

Livron, 490; Henry III raises siege 
of, 495. 

Loans, history of French public, 8. 

Loches, 70. 

Loire River, Coligny aims to master 
line of, 138; Conde controls middle, 
141; towns of, 154, 155; fighting 
line, 181, 369; Conde unable to 
cross, 371; government maintains 
line of, 384; viscounts cross at Blois, 
396; duke of Montpensier instructed 
to hold passage of, 476. 

Lombardy, 124; exportation of grain 
from, 241. 

Londono, Don Sancho, Spanish com- 
mander, 310. 

Longjumeau, Conde seizes highroad at, 
138; Peace of, 345-50, 360; influence 
of viscounts on Peace of, 396. 

Longueville, duke of, 114; assumes 
pay of reiters, 346; at siege of Poitiers, 
387; sent to interview La Noue, 457; 
death of, 469. 

Longueville, Madamoiselle de, marries 
Conde, 289. 

Lorraine, 85; wheat in, 286. 

Lorraine, Charles of Guise, cardinal of, 
(ti574), 5; charge of financial admin- 
istration of, 20; altercation of, with 
Coligny, 53; character of adminis- 
tration of, 65; leaves court, 73, 74; 
Philip II writes to, 97; hostility to 
Huguenots, 98; at Colloquy o^ 
Poissy 113; leaves court again, 114; 
corrupt practice of, 141; collects 



money at Trent for the war, 181; at 
Council of Trent, 196; bitter against 
poHcy of Charles IX, 196; sent to 
Vienna, 196; persuades Emperor 
Ferdinand, 200; proposes to form 
"The Brotherhood of Catholics in 
France," 211; feud with Marshal 
Montmorency, 252, 253; opposes 
Chancellor L'Hopital, 288; hypo- 
critical reconciliation with Coligny, 
289; accepts situation "telle quelle," 
290; treasonable negotiations of, with 
Emperor, 303; Alva's opinion of, 
336, n. ; negotiations with Spain, 
336, 337, 362; political "trimming" 
of, 356; policy of, hardens, 361; 
proposes marriage of Philip II and 
Marguerite of Valois, 364; clashes 
with L'Hopital, 363, 367; with army 
in Saintonge, 382; Jeanne d'Albret 
protests against, 392; hastens coming 
of reiters, 392; death of, 396. 

Lorraine, duke of, 21; prevented from 
joining Aumale, 339; vassal for 
duchy of Bar, 425. 

Loudun, taken by duke of Guise, 154;. 
Conde falls back on, 369; skirmish 
near, 372. 

Loudun (in valley of Rhone), taken by 
Joyeuse, 348. 

Louis IX, loans of, 83, 367, 490. 

Louis XI, ordonnance of, 217. 

Louis XII, 70; financial policy of, 8r, 
329, 471- 

Louis of Nassau, relations of, with the 
Gueux, 297; dealings of, with Protes- 
tant Germany, 298, 299; defeated at 
Jemmingen, 360, 361; joins Coligny, 
411; restoration of, demanded by 
Huguenots, 417; urges alliance of 
France and England, 440, 441; 
persuades Charles IX to sign Treaty 
of Blois, 445; leaves France for 
Valenciennes, 445, 446; interviews 
Catherine de Medici at Blamont, 
463; Spain fears co-operation of, 
with prince of Conde and duke of 
Bouillon, 476. 

Louise de Vaudemont, marries Henry 
III, 496. 

Louvre, 6, 321; secret conference of 
Guises at, 350. 

Low Countries, revolt in, 59, 263; 
Huguenots in, 315; Huguenot activ- 
ity in, 503. See also Alva; Flanders; 



INDEX 



623 



Granvella; Louis of Nassau; Valen- 
ciennes; William of Orange. 

Lucerne, 154. 

Lufon, La Noue seizes, 384, 415. 

Lusignan, tal'ien by Huguenots, 384; 
taken by La Noue, 478. 

Lutherans, 122. 

Luxembourg, heretics from, 200; diffi- 
culty of, with France, 263; France 
fortifies frontier of, 307; Alva at 
311, 315; Mansfeldt sent to, 336 
mentioned, 301, 303. See also Alva 
Mansfeldt. 

Lyons, loan imposed upon, 61; riot in 
1542, 82; commerce of, 86, 233, 234, 
237; revolt of, gi; influence of 
Geneva upon, 148, 227, 233; Re- 
formed church in, 152; recovery of, 
154; refuses to tolerate the mass, 
192; silk industry at, 227; plague 
at, 236-38; Catholic pressure upon 
Catherine de Medici at, 250; Charles 
IX sends troops to, 307, 368; mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew at, 450. 

Maarck, Count Van der. See Beggars 
of the Sea. 

Macon, 147, 151. 

Madrid, L'Aubespine returns from, 
241. 

Maine, 141, 154; Catholic league of, 
216, 354- 

Maligny, lieutenant of prince of Conde: 
pursued by Guises, 41; seizes 
Havre-de-Grace, 148, 264. 

Malta, siege of, 248, 297, 302; Spain 
borrows ships from, 306. 

Manrique, Don Juan de, ambassador 
of Philip II, 93, 97. 

Mans, Huguenot outburst at, 95 ; bishop 
of, 255. 

Mansfeldt, Count, sent to Luxem- 
bourg by Alva, 336; prevented from 
joining Aumale, 339; troops of, 373; 
at battle of Moncontour, 389. 

Marcel, provost of Paris: participation 
of, in massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
450, n. 

Margaret of Parma, half-sister of 
Philip II and regent of Netherlands: 
refuses aid to France, 146; urged 
to send assistance to Triumvirate, 
211; asserts impracticability, 212; 
sends aid, 212; fearful of revolt of 



Valenciennes, 264; implores Philip 
II for aid, 264; asks concessions for 
Netherlands, 267; petitions Emperor 
for aid, 299. 

Marguerite of Valois, sister of Charles 
IX, marriage of, proposed to Don 
Carlos, 277; to Philip II, 283; 
marriage of, with Henry of Navarre 
proposed, 383; duke of Guise makes 
love to, 419; duke of Ferrara pro- 
posed as husband of, 423; Don 
Carlos proposed as husband of, 424; 
marries Henry of Navarre, 442. 

Marguerite, sister of Henry II, married 
to Emanuel Philibert of Savoy, i. 

Marillac, archbishop of Vienne, 53. 

Marillac, Francois, counsel of Conde, 
69. 

Marmoutier, abbey of, plundered by 
Huguenots, 140. 

Marseilles, riot at, 133; court at, 251, 
306. 

Martamot, Bernard Astarac. baron of, 
recovers Tarbes, 406. 

Martigues, 255, 350. 

Martyr, Peter, 114. 

Matignon, captures Montgomery, 485; 
made marshal of France, 497. 

Ma.ximilian, Emperor: France at 
odds with, 300; urged to recover 
Metz, 301; affirms suzerainty over, 
303; daughter of, 424. 

Meaux, 177; Conde goes to, after 
massacre of Vassy, 137; court at, 
319, 338; massacre of St. Barthol- 
omew at, 450. 

Melun, court removes to, 139. 

Menendez, massacres French colony 
in Florida, 300. 

Merchant adventurers, 437, n. 

Metz, 21, 125; fear lest Emperor try 
to seize, 193, 194; imperial designs 
upon, 200, 300, 301; Emperor 
affirms suzerainty over, 303; Vieille- 
ville sent to, 307; importance of 
Calvinists in, 307; Conde demands, 
332; citadel captured by Huguenots, 
336; center of government's activity 
against duke of Deuxponts and 
William of Orange, 379; expulsion 
of Calvinists from, 379, n.; duke of 
Anjou avoids, on way to Poland, 467. 
See also Cardinal's \\'a.r\ Three 
Bishoprics; Vieilleville. 



624 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



Mezieres, duke of Alenjon demands, 
508. 

Middelburg, revolt of, 444. 

Milan, Spanish governor of, 241, 303; 
French claim to, 453. 

Milhaud, Huguenot association at, 
324; Huguenot camp at, 396; alliance 
of Huguenots and Politiques at, 499. 

Minard, vice-president of Parlement 
of Paris, murdered, 15, 41, n. 

Moncontour, battle of, 388, 389. 

Mons, capture of, Genlis, 446; sur- 
renders, 447. 

Monsieur, Peace of, 516-21. 

Montaigu, viscount of, 394. 

Montargis, rising in, 150, 161. 

Montaubon, demolition of walls of, 
207; viscounts at, 396; menioned 
405, 406; Charles IX offers to yield 
to Huguenots, 416; resists Joyeuse, 
348; three thousand Huguenots and 
Politiques of Toulouse find refuge 
in, 454; Huguenot convention at, 461. 

Montbrison (in Auvergne), Coligny at, 
416. 

Montbrun, captain of Scotch Guard 
killed at battle of Moncontour, 389. 

Montbrun, defeated by Joyeuse, 348. 

Montbrun, son of the constable, killed 
at Dreux, 179. 

Mont Cenis, Alva's route over, 308. 

Montclaire, Antoine de Rabastenis, 
viscount of, 394. 

Mont de Marsan, court at, 255; mas- 
sacre at, by Montluc, 403, 404. 

Montdidier, entered by Catholic army, 
154- 

Montereau, Conde establishes head- 
quarters at, ;^;^;}. 
Montfort, 177. 
Montfran, battle near, 348. 
Montgomery, Gabriel de Lorges, sieur 
de, captain of the Scotch Guard: 
mortally wounds Henry II in tourna- 
ment, i; at Havre-de-Grace, 165; asks 
for terms during siege of Rouen, 167; 
escapes, 168; in Dieppe, 181; pre- 
carious condition of, 187; rumor of 
coming of, to Flanders, 266; attends 
court at Moulins, 288; swaggers 
around Paris, 294; fear lest he come 
to Netherlands, 298; in Lower Nor- 
mandy, 326; sent to Pontoise, 332; 



some of the Scotch Guard desert to, 
342; in Languedoc, 397; at Castres, 
398; near Toulouse, 398; raises 
siege of Navarrens, 399; campaign 
in Beam, 398-402; joins Coligny, 
402; Montluc plans to attack at 
Condom, 407; ravages environs of 
Toulouse with Coligny, 410; escapes 
from massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
450; appears with fleet before La 
Rochelle, 458; in England, 471; lands 
near Coutances and joins Guitery 
in Normandy, 472; reply of, to 
Charles IX, 472; takes Carentan and 
Argentan, 473; captured and put to 
death, 484, 485. 
Montigny, one of the leaders of the 
Flemish revolt, 265; faithlessness 
of, 298. 

Montjean, marshal, exactions of, 82. 

Montluc, Blaise de, suppresses riot at 
Agen, 134; reputation of, 147; "true 
creator of the French infantry," 
155; at Sienna, 156; hostility of, to 
Huguenots, 156; saves Toulouse 
and Bordeaux, 157; helps form 
Catholic league at Toulouse, 214; 
ordered to report to Marshal Termes 
at Orleans, 215; helps form Catholic 
league at Agen, 215; protest against, 
226; estimate of, of number of Hugue- 
nots in Guyenne, 230; approached 
by Guises, 254, 255; advice of, con- 
cerning formation of provincial Cath- 
olic leagues, 256-58; proposes forma- 
tion of international Catholic league, 
260; joint plan of, with Philip II, 261 ; 
offered asylum in Spain, 261; warns 
Philip II of connection between 
Huguenots and revolted Flemings, 
298; on political theory of the Hugue- 
nots, 325, n.; hatred of, of Damville, 
347, 348, 398, 400, 404, 413;. sent_ to 
Gascony, 350; dealings of, with Philip 
II, 350, 351; vigilance of, 362; out- 
rages of, 362; Jeanne d'Albret crosses 
Garonne "under the nose of," 368, 
n.; discovers plot in Bordeaux, 368; 
resigns commission, but retracts res- 
ignation, 391; plans with Terride to 

. deliver Guyenne to Spain, 394; plan 
of, to conquer Beam, 397; praises 
Montgomery, 398-402; makes over- 
tures to Damville, 403; thinks of 
retiring to Libourne or Agen, 403; 
massacres Mont de Marsan, 403, 404; 
admiration of, for the reiters, 405; 



INDEX 



625 



saves Guyenne to Catholic cause, 406; 
fortifies Agen, 406; plans to attack 
Montgomery at Condom, 407; secret 
dealings of, with Charles IX, 413; still 
hopes to conquer Beam, 413; ter- 
ribly wounded in siege of Rabastens, 
414, 415- 
Montluc, Jean de, bishop of Valence, 
52, 53, 65, 80; preaches at court, 98; 
at Colloquy of Poissy, 114; pro- 
posal to expel from country, 312; 
sent to confer about peace, 344; com- 
missioner of finances in Guyenne, 
416, n.; sent on mission to Poland, 
464. 

Montmorency, Anne de, constable of 
France: favorite of Henry II, 8; 
feud of, with Guises, 18, 45, 50, 73; 
not a party to conspiracy of Amboise 
29, n.; holds balance of power after 
death of Francis II, 72; Philip II 
writes to, 97; forms Triumvirate, 
98; welcomes duke of Guise after 
massacre of Vassy, 126; advises 
king to repudiate responsibility for 
Vassy, 137; organizes Paris, 137; 
over-rules Catherine de Medici, 139; 
charged with corrupt practice, 141; 
begins to weaken, 141; proposes to 
petition the Pope for aid, 143; 
Conde demands retirement of, 150; 
fears English intervention, 162; cap- 
tured at battle of Dreux, 179; im- 
prisonment of, 182; endeavors to 
make a settlement, 183; destruction 
of house of, plotted by Guises, 255; 
quarrel with c^.rdinal of Lorraine, 
2S9; protest in favor of Cardinal 
Chatillon, 289; anger of, at Guises, 
290; quits court, 290; avarice of, 
296; rash reply of, 319; lieutenant- 
general, 331; killed at battle of St. 
Denis, 332. 

Montmorency, marshal and duke of, 
eldest son of the constable: governor 
of Paris, 127, 294; feud with cardinal 
of Lorraine, 252, 253, 356, 357; 
approaches Huguenots, 289; suc- 
ceeds to constableship, 319; Paris 
furious at, 326; confers about peace, 
344; assumes pay of reiters, 346; 
informed of plot of Guises, 350; 
moderation of, 356; leaves Paris, 
357; advocates marriage of Henry of 
Anjou and Queen Elizabeth, 358, 
359; deposed as governor of Paris, 
358; disaffection of, 375; the man 



of the hour, 419; urges marriage of 
duke of Anjou and Elizabeth and 
Henry of Navarre with Marguerite 
of Valois, 422-26; relations of, with 
Charles IX, 439; Charles IX urged 
to execute, 481; arrested, 482; feud 
with Guises, the "seed of the war," 
493' 494- 

Montpellier, Huguenot league at, 121; 
court at, 252; resists Joyeuse, 348, 
405, 406, 411. 

Montpensier, duke of, 36, 63, 73; 
Philip II writes to, 97; and the 
Triumvirate, 98; mobbed by Hugue- 
nots, 120, 121; Alva's convert at 
Bayonne, 304; castle belonging to, 
taken, 369; defeats viscounts in 
Perigord, 396; sent into Anjou, 476; 
feud of, with the Guises, 498. 

Montreuil, Coligny at, 138. 

Montrichard, Coligny at, 182. 

Mont St. Michel, Charles IX at, 413. 

Morillon, provost, upon Flemish revolt, 
314- 

Moriscos, revolt of, 417, 418, 422. 

Morlaas (in Beam), captured by Ter- 
ride, 398. 

Morvilliers, bishop of Orleans, 165; 
confers with Conde, 328; as keeper 
of the seal protests against feudal 
release of duchy of Bar and resigns, 
425; warns Charles IX, 468. 

Moulins, Huguenots destroy Bourbon 
tombs at, 148, 249; court passes 
winter at, 288; influx of Huguenots 
into, 288; interdiction of Protestant 
worship at, 289; ordonnance of, 
291-96. 

Mouy, tries to prevent Strozzi's coming, 

329- 
Muscovite, Polish hostility to, 465. 
Musket, introduction of field, 310. 

Nancy, duke of Anjou passes through, 

on way to Poland, 467. 
Nantes, conspiracy of Amboise plotted 

at, 30; 283; Edict of, 345, 409; no 

massacre of St. Bartholomew at, 450. 
Naples, 21; troops from, 310; French 

claim to, 453. 

Narbonne, taken by Huguenot-Poli- 

tique party, 502. 
Nassau. See Louis of Nassau. 
"Natural frontiers," 205. 



626 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



Navarre, Philip II fears attack upon, 
146. 

Navarrens, siege of, by Terride, 398, 
399; raised by Montgomery, 399, 
400. 

Nemours, duke of: made governor 
of Champagne, 92; implicated in 
plot to kidnap Henry, duke of Orleans- 
Anjou, 119; forsakes his wife and 
marries duchess of Guise, 293; 
breaks Conde's blockade of Paris, 
332; ordered to intercept duke of 
Deuxponts, 380. 

Nemours, Madame de (duchess of 
Guise): complicity of, in massacre of 
St. Bartholomew, 450; demands 
governorship of Normandy for hus- 
band, 498. 

Nerac, Huguenot church at, 156; Mont- 
gomery at, 407; revolts, 502. 

Netherlands, progress of heresy in, 197; 
critical situation in, 211; Philip II 
and, 245; revolt of, 263, 264, 360; con- 
nection of revolt of, with Huguenots, 
266, 296; Huguenot preachers in, 
297; fear lest Montgomery come, 
298; influence of France upon, 359, 
360; proposed alliance for liberation 
of, 425. 5eea/.yo Alva; Egmont; Flan- 
ders; Granvella; Holland; Hoorne; 
Louis of Nassau; Margaret of Parma; 
Philip II; Valenciennes; William of 
Orange. 

Nevers, 218; captured by duke of 
Deuxponts, 380. 

Nevers, duke of, claims government of 
Normandy, 498. 

Newhaven. See Havre-de-Grace. 

Nimes, Protestantism at, 228; court at, 
252. 

Niort, 283; La Noue relieves, 384; 
Coligny falls back on, after battle of 
Moncontour, 389; duke of Alenjon 
demands, 508. 

Nivernais, Protestantism in, 228. 

Nobility, policy of, in 1559, 9; impover- 
ishment of, 344. 

Noizay, chateau de, rendezvous of 
conspirators of Amboise, 34. 

Nonio, an astrologer, 344. 

Normandy, 26, 41, 45, 60, 76; loans 
made in, 83; Huguenots in, 95, 142, 
148, 232; Coligny made governor 
of, 126; fear of English intervention 



in, 150; formidable nature of revolt 
in, 162; militia of, 208; Protestant- 
ism in, 228, 230; coast defense of, 
307; war of partisans in Lower, 326, 
430; apprehension in ports of, 471; 
dispute over governorship of, 498. 
See also Bayeux; Caen; Caudebec; 
Dieppe; Havre; Rouen. 

Norris, Sir Henry, English ambassador, 
protests innocence of English govern- 
ment's conduct, 373; urges marriage 
of Queen Elizabeth with duke of 
Anjou, 422. 

Nostradamus, astrologer, 251. 

Nuncio, papal, demands, that Cardinal 
Chatillon resign, 289; at Madrid, 
315; protests against Huguenots in 
Avignon and Verre, 417. See also 
Ferrara; Salviati; Santa Croce. 

Niirnberg, 219. 

Olivier, chancellor, 34; death, 43. 

Oran, Philip II's expedition to, 248. 

Ora,nge, cruelties practiced at, 155. 

Orange, William of, at deathbed of 
Henry II, 12; leader of revolt of 
Netherlands, 264; tactics of, 265; 
insists upon convocation of States- 
General, 268; allied with Gueux, 297; 
relations with Conde, 297; with 
Egmont and Hoorne, 298; leaves 
Flanders, 312; seeks to use reiters 
of Casimir, 360; enters France, 369; 
anxiety over movements of, 369; 
effects junction with Deuxponts, 
373, 374. See also Egmont; Gueux; 
Hoorne; Louis of Nassau; Nether- 
lands. 

Orleannais, 207; Protestantism in, 
228, 230. 

Orleans, 36, 61, 63, 64, 70, 74, 127, 314; 
Huguenot worship at, 80; States- 
General at, 91, 221, 290; Conde 
assumes command of Huguenot 
forces at, 139, 140; troops pour into, 
142; Grammont fails to reach, 146; 
fear lest supplies be cut off from, 151; 
condition of counrty around, 152; 
Conde retires to, 153; Catholic 
garrisons around, 172; Huguenot 
center at, 181; D'Andelot's serious 
position in, 186; siege of, 186-88; 
demolition of walls of, 207; captured 
by La Noue, 331; plot to seize, by 
Catholics, 350; Catholic headquarters 
at, 367; relief of, 396; massacre of 
St. Bartholomew at, 45c. 



INDEX 



627 



Orleans, Henry, duke of Orleans- 

Anjou. See Henry IH. 
Orsenne, taken by Joyeuse, 348. 
Orthez, captured by Terride, 398. 
Ostabanes, 355. 
Ozances, French ambassador in Spain, 

117. 

Pacheco, cardinal, 279, 281. 

Palatine, count, 122, 158, 303. See 
also Casimir. 

Pampeluna, Philip II strengthens, 146. 

Pamphlets, Huguenot, 475, 476. See 
also Franco-Gallia, Hotman; Hugue- 
nots; Le Tigre. 

Parat, viscount of, 394. 

Paris, I, 26, 45, 47, 48; loan demanded 
of, 61; Chaudien, Protestant pastor 
in, 64; Catholic preachers of, admon- 
ished, 80; rentes of, 83-85 {see Fi- 
nances, Debt); abounds with Hugue- 
not preachers, 94; riot in, 94-96, 120; 
prince de la Roche-sur-Yon made 
governor of, 126; Marshal Mont- 
morency made governor of, 127; 
violence of, 127; receives duke of 
Guise joyfully after massacre of 
Vassy, 135, 136; weakness of Hugue- 
nots in, 137; prince of Conde leaves, 
137; alarm of, 137-39; troops col- 
lected in, 143; fears attack by Conde, 
147, 149; hostility to Huguenots, 
149; people of, armed, 154; Conde 
advances upon, 172, 173; gunpowder 
factory at, blown up, 186; refuses to 
tolerate terms of peace, 191; appealed 
to for loan, 200; hatred of, of Coligny, 
206, n.; witticism of, 207; preponder- 
ance of, in formation of Holy League 
exaggerated, 213; plague at, 284; 
wheat dear in, 286; Montgomery in, 
294; court moves to, 294; bigotry 
of, 217; exodus of Huguenots from, 
326; blockade of, 326; makes loan 
to king, 329; precarious condition 
of Conde before, 331; Flemish 
troops arrive at, 335; loyalty of, 339, 
340; prepares for siege, 343; Cath- 
olic resentment of, 349; garrison of 
350; Alen^on made governor of, 
368; anxiety of Guises over, 370; 
elation at news of Jarnac, 376; 
frightened by capture of La Charite, 
381; offers to maintain war, 417; 
forced loan in, 461; commercial 
dispute with Rouen, 470; military 
preparations in, 476; attacks upon. 



507; preparations to defend, 510; 
remonstrances of, to Henry III, 
510,511; resents Peace of Monsieur, 
522. 

Parlement of Paris, hostility of, to Hu- 
guenots, 96; acquits prince of Conde, 
102; hopes of L'Hopital and Coligny 
about, 103; forbids speculation in 
grain, 286; good sense of, 296. 

Pau, captured by Terride, 398. 

Paulin, Bertrand de Rabastenis, vis- 
count of, 394, 395; captured, 397; 
Huguenot governor in Languedoc, 
461. 

Peasantry, armed by duke of Anjou, 
384; in Languedoc and Quercy, 
allied with viscounts, 395; wretched- 
ness of, 491; arms in hands of, 494, 
495; revolt of, 502. 

Perigord, Conde in, 372. 

Perigueux, taken by Huguenots-Poli- 
tiques, 502. 

Perpignan, Charles offers to trade for 
La Charite, 416. 

Peter's Pence, 80. 

Pfiffer, Swiss colonel at Meaux, 320. 

Philip II, King of Spain (1557-98): 
marries Elizabeth of Valois, i; 
notified of death of Henry II, 7; 
suspected of urging inquisition in 
France, 12; offers aid to Guises, 52; 
alarmed at project of a national 
council in France, 59; appealed to 
by Francis II, 59, 65; said to be 
inclined to restore Navarre, 73; 
seeks to harden policy of France 
toward Huguenots, 93; writes to 
Catholic leaders, 97; appealed to by 
Triumvirate, 99; alarmed at policy 
of France, 1 16-18; redoubles efforts 
with Antoine of Bourbon, 123; conti- 
nental designs of , 124, 125; procrasti- 
nation of, 131; offers Sardinia to 
Antoine of Bourbon, 132; asked 
for aid, 143; fears attack on Navarre 
and strengthens Fontarabia and 
Pampeluna, 146; and England, 163; 
joy over battle of Dreux, 182; hos- 
tility to Edict of Amboise, 195; 
alarmed at England's possible re- 
covery of Calais, 197; resolved to 
act after massacre of Vassy, 211; 
opposed to marriage of Charles IX 
or Conde to Mary Stuart, 244; and 
France, 245; and Italy, 245, 247; 



628 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



and England, 245, and Scotland, 
245; character of, 247, 248; interest of, 
in crushing Calvinism, 260; joint plan 
of, with Pius IV and Montluc, 261; 
' orders maintenance of inquisition 
in Flanders, 262; implored to come 
to Netherlands, 264; consents to 
interview with Catherine de Medici, 
270; letter of, to Cardinal Pacheco, 
279, 281; consents to have Charles 
IX marry Elizabeth of Austria, 283; 
anxiety of, 289; doubt as to his course 
294; overshadows France, 297; wor- 
ried at connection between Hugue- 
nots and revolted Flemings, 298; 
refused permission to have Spanish 
troops cross France, 299; knowledge 
of, of massacre of French in Flor- 
ida, 300; favors plan to recover Metz, 
301, 302; dares not make overt move 
against France, 302; determines to 
send Alva to Flanders, 305; angry 
at alliance of France and Switzer- 
land, 315; self-control of, 337; fears 
Catherine de Medici will make terms 
with Huguenots, 341; secret relations 
of, with Montluc, 350, 351; interest 
of, in provincial Catholic leagues, 
351; proposed as husband of Mar- 
guerite of Valois, 364; marries Anne 
of Austria, 364, 424; war of, with the 
Moriscos, 417, 418, 422; plans with 
reference to Mary Stuart, 424; 
advised by Requesens of Huguenot 
activity of, in Low Countries, 503. 

Philip IV, financial policy of, 83. 

Picardv, 60, 70, 126, 204, 232, 268; 
rebellion in, 190; Huguenots in, 
107; militia of, 208; wheat dear in, 
286; frontier strengthened, 315; 
government of, promised to Conde, 
316; Marshal Cosse in, 369; prince 
of Conde made governor of, 469; 
danger on border of, 503; Spain 
alarmed at situation in, 511, 312. 

Piedmont, Marshal Termes in, 182; 
viscount of PauHn in, 395. 

Pilles, defends St. Jean-d'Angely, 390. 

Piracy, 373. 

Pius IV, alarmed at plan of National 
Council in France, 57; offended at 
action of States-General, 81, 89; 
sends cardinal of Ferrara to France, 
115; petitioned for aid, 143, 144; 
sends troops to Joyeuse, 151; antici- 
pated death of, 209; remonstrance 



of Charles IX to, 230; idea of, of a 
European concert, 247; brings pres- 
sure upon Catherine de Medici, 250; 
joint plan with Philip II and Mont- 
luc, 261; favors France at Trent, 261. 

Pius V, advocates wholesale slaughter 
of Huguenots, 275; troops of, 329; 
takes victory of jarnac as answer to 
prayer, 377; elation of, 394. 

Plague, at Lyons, 236-38, 283, 284. 

Poissy, Colloquy of, 103, 106, 109, 
110-14,117,230; interest of German 
princes in, 121, 123; Andelot sent to 
seize, 332. 

Poitiers, 14, 41, 64, 142, 350; exempt 
from gabelle, 85; Huguenots in, 95; 
rising in 150; captured by St. Andre, 
153; rebellion in, 190; Protestantism 
in, 228; siege of, 385-87. 

Poitou, Huguenot movement in, 472. 
See also Poitiers. 

Poland, 283; duke of Anjou elected 
king of, 465; French ambition in, 
464, 465. 

Politiques, difficult to distinguish be- 
tween, and Huguenots, 231; germ of, 
358; labor for peace, 372; make 
common cause with Huguenots, 471; 
political theory of, 475, 476; imbued 
with Hotman's teachings, 486; al- 
liance with Huguenots at Milhaud, 
4S9, 499, 500; Politique league in 
Burgundy, 502. 

Poltrot, assassin of duke of Guise, 188. 

Pontacq (in Beam), captured by Ter- 
ride, 398. 

Pont-a-Mousson, duke of Deuxponts 
at, 379. 

Pont Audemer, 162. 

Pont de Ce, 372; duke of Alenjon de- 
mands, 508. 

Pontoise, adjourned session of States- 
General at, 8g, 106-9, 1^7' Hugue- 
not outburst at, 95; demands of 
States-General of, 290; Montgomery 
sent to seize, 332. 

Pont St. Esprit, Joveuse fails to take, 
348. 

Pope, nullifies marriage of duke of 
Nemours and offends the Rohans, 
293; consents to alienation of church 
property, 366; takes victory of Jarnac 
as answer to prayer, 377; opposed 
to Spain's Polish aspirations, 464, 



INDEX 



629 



465; refuses to receive Paul de Foix, 
469. See also Pius IV; Pius V; 
Gregory XIII. 

Porcien, prince of, activity of, in Low 
Countries, 315. 

Porcien, princess of, marries duke of 
Guise, 419. 

Portereau, a faubourg of Orleans, 186. 

Port Ste. Marie, captured by Coligny 
406; destruction of bridge at, 406, 
407. 

Port St. Martin, faubourg of Paris, 
windmills in, burned by Huguenots, 
327- 

Portsmouth, 188. 

Portugal, proposal that queen of, 
marry duke of Anjou, 364; Portu- 
guese marriage planned for Mar- 
guerite of Valois, 419. 

Portuguese, 300. 

Pouzin, Huguenot stronghold, 490; 
captured by Henry III, 491. 

Poyet, chancellor of Francis I, reforms 
of, 82. 

Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII, 116. 

Provence 45, 49, 52, 64, 142; Huguenots 
in, 95, 286; association of, 214; Pro- 
testantism in, 230; Charles IX 
strengthens garrisons of, 306; civil 
war in, 347; towns controlled by 
Huguenots in, 361; viscount of 
Rapin in, 395; Huguenot control of, 
405, 406. 

Provins, 161, n., 284. 

Prussia, Lithuania makes alliance with 
Russia, Sweden, and, 466. 

Puvgaillard, outmatched by La Noue, 
415- 

Quercy, viscounts in, 395. 

Rabastens Montluc terribly wounded 

at siege of, 415, 416. 
Ranke, quoted on massacre of Vassy, 

135- 
Rapin, viscount of, 394; in rising of 

Toulouse in 1562, 395; governor of 

Montauban, 395; crosses Rhone 

into Dauphine and Provence, 395; 

ravages in Vivarais, 396. 
Reformation in England and Germany, 

229. 
Regency, of Blanche of Castille, 42; 

of Anne of Beaujeu, 42; and Salic 



Law, 72, n. See also Antoine of 
Bourbon; Catherine de Medici; 
Charles IX; Francis II. 

Reiters, 145, n., 157, 158, t,^t„ 335, 
338, 373; cross Seine 160; introduce 
German words into French language, 
160, n.; in Normandy, 166; at 
battle of Dreux, 179; Coligny in fear 
of his own, 184; spoliation of Nor- 
mandy by, 187, 188; return of, to Ger- 
many, 192; depredations of, 193-95; 
paid by Catherine de Medici, 198; of 
Rhinegrave, 200; Lignerolles sent 
"to practice the stay of," 330; 
enter Lorraine, 339; effect junction 
with Conde, 339; pay of, 345, 346; 
ravages of, 357; effort to prevent, 
joining William of Orange, 363; 
levied in Germany, 368; of duke of 
Deuxponts, 370; urged to advance 
to Loire River, 379; Paris fears 
coming of, after capture of La 
Charite, 381; in battle of Moncon- 
tour, 388, 389; threaten to mutiny, 
391; hastened forward by cardinal 
of Lorraine, 393; tentative offer of 
restoratiorj of Three Bishoprics if 
Emperor 'will stay progress of, 393; 
effective warfare of, 405; mutiny of, 
412; devastate Fair of Champagne, 
420, n.; plundering of, 491; cross 
Rhine, 505; ravages in Champagne, 
506, 507; return of, to Germany, 522, 
523- 

Renaudie, Godfrey de Barry, sieur de: 
leader of conspiracy of Amboise, 30; 
death of, 38. 

Rennes, Bochetel, bishop of, sent to 
count palatine, 335. 

Rentes, 83. See also Finances; Debts; 
Loans; Paris. 

Requesens, succeeds Alva as governor 
of Spanish Netherlands, 494; offers 
Spanish troops to Catherine de 
Medici, 494; warns Philip II of 
Huguenot activity in Low Countries, 
503; fears daughter of William of 
Orange will marry duke of Alengon, 
503- 

Revel, discontent with Polish election, 
466. 

Rheims, 218; endangered by William 
of Orange, 370; Henry III crowned 
at, 495. 

Rhine, 124; D'Andelot crosses, 15S. 



630 



THE WARS -OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



Rhinegrave, 177; reiters of, mutiny 
in Champagne, 200. 

Rhinelands, 246. 

Rhone river, Joyeuse's campaign in 
valley of, 348; Henry III attempts 
to clear valley of, 490. 

Ridolfi plot, 433, 462. 

Riga, discontent with French election 
in Poland, 466. 

Robert, Claudius, counsel of prince of 
Conde, 69. 

Rochefort, La Noue at, 415. 

Rochefoucauld, count of, 6; driven 
into Saintonge, 153; Alva advises 
execution of, 274, 350. 

Rochelle. See La Rochelle. 

Roche-sur-Yon, prince de, accompanies 
Elizabeth of France to Spain, 7; 
governor of Orleans, 63; governor 
of Paris, 126; supplanted by Marshal 
Montmorency, 127. 

Roggendorf , recruiting sergeant of Guises 
in Germany, 145, n.; arrives in Paris, 
162; Catherine de Medici demands 
withdrawal of, from Paris, 295. See 
also Reiters. 

Rohan, duke de, forbids Catholic 
worship in his domains, 288; anger 
of, at duke of Nemours for divorce of 
his wife, 293; Huguenots flee to 
protection of, 326; Henry III at- 
tempts to confiscate the lands of; 502. 

Rome, 50, 299. 5ee a/w Gregory XIII; 
Pius IV; Pius V. 

Romero, Julian, Spanish commander, 
310. 

Romorantin, Edict of, 104 See also 
Edict. 

Rosay-en-Brie, rendezvous of Hugue- 
nots at, 320. 

Rotrou, county of, given to Conde, 316. 

Rotterdam, all Holland lost to Spain 
save Amsterdam and, 446. 

Rouen, 27, 127, 177; riots in, 47, 48, 
71, 84, 142, 148; Reformed church 
in, 152; Conde thinks of going to, 
154; Aumale approaches, 155; re- 
solve to attack, 161, 162; siege of, 
165-70; Marshal Brissac at, 182; 
objects to Edict of Amboise, 192; 
Catholic association in Rouennais, 
216; port of, 228; opposition to 
Peace of Longjumeau in, 347; mas- 



sacre of St. Bartholomew at, 450; 

commercial dispute of, with Paris, 470. 
Rouergue, raid of viscounts in, 395. 

See also Milhaud. 
Rouissillon, Edict of, 250, 251. See 

also Edict. 
Roy, Jacques le, archbishop of Bourges, 

aids in establishment of Catholic 

league in Berry, 354. 
Roye, Eleanor de, princess of Conde, 

asks Elizabeth for aid, 187; death, 

243- 

St. Aignan, Coligny at, 182. 

St, Ambroise, Alva at, 309, 311. 

St. Andre, marshal, 7, 35, 69; Phihp II 
writes to, 97; hostility of, to Hugue- 
nots, 98; joins Triumvirate, 98, 99; 
reprimanded by Catherine de Medici, 
133; charged with corrupt practice, 
141, 296; Conde demands retire- 
ment of, 150; captures Poitiers, 153; 
killed at battle of Dreux, 179; suc- 
ceeded by Marshal Vieilleville, 181; 
daughter of, not permitted to marry 
young prince of Conde, 206. 

St. Bartholomew, massacre of, influence 
of Bayonne Conference upon, 271, 
281; Huguenot organization before 
and after, 324, 325, 383; massacre of 
449-53; responsibility of Catherine 
de Medici for, 449; causes fourth civil 
war, 474; German resentment because 
of, 468. 

St. Catherine's Mount, fortress of 
Rouen, 155, 167. See also Rouen. 

St. Cloud, 21, 138, 159; war in, 48, 
49, 60. 

St. Denis, 177; windmills in faubourg 
of, burned by Huguenots, 327; battle 
of, 332, 338- 

St. Florens, abbey of, Conde massacres 
garrison of, 372. 

Ste. Gemme, La Noue wounded at 
battle of, 415. 

St. Germain, 131; Peace of, 416-18; 
infractions of, 420; plot to seize 
king at, 477, 478. 

St. Honore, faubourg of, windmills 
burned in, 327. 

St. Jean-d'Angely, arms secretly stored 
at, 363; siege of, 389-90; townsmen 
of, 391, 392; honorable treatment 
of garrison of, by Charles IX, 392; 
revolts, 502. 



INDEX 



631 



St. Jean de Maurienne, Alva at, 311. 

St. L6, demolition of walls of, 207; 
Huguenot forces in. 472. 

St. Louis (Louis IX), 367. 

St. Marceau, Catholic camp in fau- 
bourg of, 343. 

St. Martin-des-champs, 334. 

St. Mathurin, 161. 

St. Maur-des-Fosses, 293. 

St. Omer, "Spanish Fury" at^ 305. 

St. Ouen, 327. 

St. Palais, Catholic league at, 355. 

St. Pierre, abbey of, Conde imprisoned 
in, 182. 

St. Quentin, battle of, 8. 

St. Roman, viscount of, made Huguenot 
governor in Languedoc, 461. 

St. Sulpice, French ambassador in 
Spain: Catherine de Medici's cor- 
respondence with, 247, 249; dis- 
covers plot to kidnap Jeanne d'Al- 
bret and seize Beam, 266; succeeded 
by Fourquevaux, 283, 424. 

Saintes, 283; arms secretly stored at, 
363, 406. 

Saintonge, exempt from gabelle, 85; 
revolt in, 150; mentioned, 379; duke 
of Anjou in, 381; La Noue in, 408. 

Salic Law, 337. 

Salzedo. See Cardinal's War. 

Sancerre, count of, 33. 

Sancerre, siege of, 460. 

Santa Croce, cardinal of, 295. 

Sardinia, 73; offered to Antoine of 
Bourbon, 132; troops from, 310. 

Saumur, 141; garrison at, 309; Coligny 
plans to take, 385; duke of Alenjon 
demands, 508. 

Sauveterre (in Beam), captured by 
Terride, 398. 

Saverne, conference between dukes of 
Guise and Wiirtemburg at, 123. 

Savigny, lieutenant in Touraine, 63, 64. 

Savoy, 119, 144, 246; dowry of duchess 
of, 208; Alva's march through, 311; 
troops of, 329. 

Savoy, Emanuel Philibert, duke of, 
marries sister of Henry H, i ; urges 
extirpation of heresy, 210; mission 
of Don Juan de Acuna to, 308; 
treaty of, with Bern, 309; interview, 
with Damville, 488, 491. 



Saxony, John William, duke of, 52. 

Schomberg, German colonel in service 
of France, 371; missions of, to Ger- 
many, 463, 467, 504. 

Scotch Guard, history of, 7; reduced, 
208; meeting of, 342; supplanted 
by Swiss Guard, 342, n. See also 
Montgomery. 

Scotland, French troops sent to, 199; 
alliance with France, 243; Philip II 
and, 245; relations of, with England, 
433, 434. See also Cardinal of 
Lorraine; Mary Stuart. 

Sedan, duke of Bouillon at, 472. 

Seine River, guard of, 138; mouth of, 
148; line of, 181; Coligny unable 
to cross, 185; Conde unable to cross, 
371- 

Seize (Sixteen) nucleus of Holy League 
in Paris, 318. 

Sens, archbishop of, 114; Huguenots of, 
127, 128; riot at, 133; mentioned, 
209, 218, 232, 333, 339; highroad to, 
held by Huguenots, 327. 

Sevignac, viscount of, 394. 

Sforza, Ludovico, 70. 

Shakerly, Thomas, an Englishman, 126. 

Sicily, troops from, 310. 

Siena, Montluc at, 156. 

Sigismund Augustus of Poland, death 
of, 464. 

Silly, Jacques de, representative of 
noblesse in States-General, 77. 

Sipierre, lieutenant in Orleannais, 63, 
69. 

Sluys, Spanish fleet in, dispersed, 446; 
captured by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 
446. 

Smith, English ambassador in France, 
tries to dissuade Huguenots from 
making peace, 198; demands resti- 
tution of Calais, 204; description of 
plague at Lyons, 236-38; saying of, 
about cardinal of Lorraine, 290; 
writes to Burghley, 290; interest of, in 
marriage negotiations of Elizabeth 
and duke of Anjou, 429. 

Soissons (Soissonais), wheat dear in, 
286; captured by Huguenots, 331; 
plot to seize, 350. 

Somarive, cruelties of, 155. 

Sorbonne, hostility of, to Huguenots, 96; 
students of, 127. 



632 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



Spain, 131, 158; Catherine de Medici 
inclines toward, 137; money from, 
184; urges extirpation of heresy, 
210; saying of Spain's ambassador, 
232; commerce of, in Lombardy, 
241, 242; impatient for fulfilment of 
promise at Bayonne, 283; Protestants 
of, 308, n.; policy of, in Switzerland, 
371; fears French attack on Tranche 
Comte, 418; offers duke of Anjou 
command of fleet against Turks, 423; 
demands that Charles IX suppress 
Huguenot activity in Netherlands, 
426; prospect of war with France, 
443; interest of, in Poland, 464; alarm 
over possible cession of border fortress 
in Picardy to prince of Conde, 512. 
See also Alava; Alva; Chantonnay; 
Philip II. 

"Spanish fury," 305. 

Spliigen Pass, 241. 

States-General, of Orleans, called, 55,65, 
68; relation of, to proposed National 
Council, 58, 68; transferred from 
Meaux to Orleans, 62; Huguenots 
hope to organize, 75; opening of, 75; 
debates in, 75-80; legislation of, 81; 
financial policy of, 87-89; factional 
rivalry in, gi; resolution of, governing 
clergy, 92; adjourned session of, at 
Pontoise, 89, 106-9, ^'^T> demands 
of, 290; demand for, 421. 

Stelvio Pass, 241. 

Strasburg, 308. 

Strozzi, cardinal, helps in formation of 
Catholic league at Toulouse, 214. 

Strozzi, Italian artillery colonel, 249, 
271; troops under command of, 329; 
destroys bridge of boats across 
Seine, 332; taken prisoner at battle 
of La Roche I'Abeille, 383; mas- 
sacres garrison of Marans, 455; ex- 
changed for La Noue, 476. See also 
ItaHans. 

Stuart, Mary, 5, 21, 48, 72, 163, 199; 
proposed marriage of, to Don Carlos, 
94; sought in marriage by King of 
Denmark, 123; project to marry prince 
of Conde to, 243; Guises want to 
marry, to Charles IX, 244; duke of 
Anjou put forward as husband of, 
423; marries Darnley, 424. 

Stuart, Robert, suspected of murder of 
president Minard, 41, n.; kills con- 
stable Montmorency at battle of St. 
Denis, 332. 



Superstition, 287. See also Nonio; 

Nostradamus. 
Sweden, relations of, with Poland, 466. 

Swiss, payment of, by Francis I, 85; 
join Tavannes, 157; sent to aid of 
duke of Aumale, 162; enrolment of, 
to protect French frontier, 315, 318; 
Huguenots try to break French 
alliance with, 330; sufferings of, in 
the army, 342; cannot come till 
September, 384; at siege of Poitiers, 
387, 453; refuse to let France enroll 
mercenaries, 454; sent into Langue- 
doc and Dauphine, 461; licensed, 
469. See also Froelich; Meaux. 

Switzerland, French exiles from, 30, 94; 
cantonal system of, in; mentioned 
144, 154; Spain's ascendency in, 
240; French interests in, 240-43; 
rivalry of France and Spain in, 299; 
French enrolments in, 307; fears 
joint attack of Spain and Savoy, 308; 
true policy of France in, 318; policy 
of, Spain in, 371; debts of French 
crown in, 371. See also Basel, 
Bellievre; Bern; Freiburg; Grisons; 
Valois. 

Taille, 81. See also Debt; Finances. 

Tarbes, Huguenots recover, 406. 

Tarde, pastor of church at Ostabanes, 
355- 

Tavannes, marshal, opposes extra- 
ordinary tribunals, 14; sent to 
Dauphine after conspiracy of Am- 
boise, 38; accuses Catherine de 
Medici of being privy to conspiracy 
of Amboise, 42, n.; foils attack on 
Dijon, 149; saves Chalons-sur-Saone, 
149; forces of, 154; Swiss join, 157; 
Margaret of Parma sends aid to, 212; 
forms Confrerie du St. Esprit in 
Burgundy, 216; sent to guard frontier 
against reiters, 339; organizes Con- 
frerie du St. Esprit in Burgundy, 
352, 353; organizes Catholic league 
in Berry, 354; vigilance of, 362; 
refuses to seize Conde and Coligny 
by treachery, 365 ; at battle of Jarnac, 
376; protests against siege of St. 
Jean-d'Angely, 390; bold reply of, 
to Spanish ambassador, 418, 419; 
urges marriage of duke of Anjou 
with Queen Elizabeth, 426; com- 
plicity of, in massacre of St. Bartholo- 
mew, 453. 



INDEX 



^33 



Taxes, new, by Henry III, 509-11. 

Teligny, sent to confer about peace, 
344; sent to king in overtures for 
peace, 392. 

Templars, loans of, 83. 

Tende, count of, governor of Provence, 
blocks viscount of Rapin, 396. 

Termes, marshal, 36, 39, 69; sent to 
Normandy after conspiracy of Am- 
boise, 39; governor of Guyenne, 63; 
and Triumvirate, 99; succeeded by 
marshal Bourdillon, 182; Montluc 
ordered to report to, 215. 

Terride, implicated with Montluc in 
plot to deliver Guyenne to Spain, 
394; campaign in Beam, 398-400. 

Thionville, Alva at, 311. 

Three Bishoprics, 124, 302; refuge of 
heretics from Lower Germany, 200; 
Emperor revives claim to, 336; 
promise of restoration of, to Emperor 
if he will stop progress of reiters, 393; 
counterclaims of France and Austria 
to, 424; claims of Casimir, count 
palatine, to, 521. See also Metz; 
Toul; Verdun; Vieilleville. 

Throckmorton, Sir Nicholas, English 
ambassador in France, 24, 126; 
urges Ehzabeth to give aid to Hugue- 
nots, 184; confers with Coligny, 185; 
tries to dissuade Huguenots from 
making peace, 198. 

Thuringia, landgrave of, 122. 

Tigre, Le, a pamphlet written by 
Hotman, 39. 

Tithes, Huguenots refuse to pay, 118. 
See also Clergy; Dime; Finances. 

Tocsin, 160. 

Toledo, Don Ferdinand Alvarez de, 
Spanish commander, 311. 

Torcy, sent to interview Montgomery, 
472. 

Toul, riot at, 133, 301. See also Metz; 
Three Bishoprics; Verdun. 

Toulon, 306. 

Toulouse, 14, 84, 368; riot at, 133, 142, 
214; Huguenots suffer heavily in, 
150; saved by Montluc, 157; refuses 
to recognize peace of Amboise, 192; 
Catholic league formed at, 214; 
opposition to peace of Longjumeau at, 
347; revival of Catholic league in, 
354; environs of, devastated by 



viscounts, 395; parlement of, asserts 
jurisdiction over Beam, 397; Mont- 
gomery near, 398; invested by 
Coligny and Montgomery, 410, 411; 
parlement of, protests against Peace 
of St. Germain, 417, n.; massacre 
of St. Bartholomew at, 450. 

Touraine, 45, 63; 141, 154; Huguenots 
in, 95 and n.; duke of Montpensier 
mobbed by Huguenots in, 120, 121. 

Tournay, heresy at, 197; revolt of, 
feared, 264. 

Tournelles, Palais de, 3, 6. 

Tournon, Cardinal, 50; writes to 
Philip II, 97; and Triumvirate, 98; 
Catherine de Medici offended at, 
^33- 

Tournoh, taken by Huguenots-Poli- 
tiques, 502. 

Tours, 33, 35, 127; Du Plessis, Hugue- 
not pastor at, 64; riots at, 133, 140; 
drownings at, 154. 

Trent, Council of, 114, 116, 117, iiS, 
124, 209, 299; cardinal of Lorraine 
collects money at, 181; findings of, 
57. 209. 210, 234, 250, 273, 278, 295; 
conflict of Spanish and French am- 
bassadors at, 261, 262. 

Tresques, taken by Joyeuse, 396. 

Treves, archbishop of, 303. 

Triumvirate, pillars of, 97; formation 
of, 98, 99; appeals to Philip II, 99; 
negotiations of, 121; tries to influence 
Antoine of Bourbon, 131, 133; 
intends to compel court to go to Bois 
de Vincennes, 137; Antoine surren- 
ders to, 138; Catherine de Medici 
yields to, 143; asks Margaret of 
Parma for aid, 145; Huguenots 
demand withdrawal of, 150; over- 
tures of, to Spain, 211; Spain's slow 
reply to, 212, 224. 

Trompette, Chateau, Huguenots at- 
tempt to seize, 213. See also 
Bordeau.x. 

Troyes, 84, 127, 142, 232, 330; treaty 
of, 204, 209, 238, 239; Conde moves 
to, 333; Catholic league of Cham- 
pagne formed at, 354; massacre of 
St. Bartholomew at, 450. 

Tulle, inhabitants of, refuse to pay 
taxes, 492. 

Tunis, "kingdom of," promised to 
Antoine of Bourbon, 1^2. 



634 



THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE 



Turenne, viscount of, sent to Mont- 
gomery, 472; sides with Mont- 
morency, 474. 

Turin, 311; Henry III at, 488; Dam- 
ville at, 488. 

Turks, 84, 89; relations of, with Cathe- 
rine de Medici, 248; attack Maha, 
248, 297, 302, 306; league proposed 
against, 277; fleet against, 423; 
league against, 423, n.; French 
relations with, 424; Spain demands 
discontinuance of ' French relations 
with, 426; friendliness of, to France, 
453; make truce with Emperor, 464; 
Damville introduces, into Aigues 
Mortes, 492. See also Lepanto. 

Tuscany, money from, 184; duke of, 
311; influence of, 423. 

Tyrol, 242. 

Uloa, Alonzo de, Spanish commander, 

310. 
Universities, Huguenots excluded from, 

420. 
Utrecht, revolt in, 265. 
Uzes, duke of, resigns, 502. 

Valais, forms league with Bern and 

Freiburg, 308. 
Valenciennes, heresy at, 197; rebellious 

spirit of, 264, 266; Louis of Nassau 

takes, 445, 446. 
Valery, Synod of, 319. 
Valois, wheat dear in, 286. 
Valteline, 241. 
Vargas, member of Alva's Council of 

Blood, 312. 
Vassy, massacre of, 134, 135; does not 

dismay Huguenots, 137; constable 

advises King to repudiate guilt of, 

137; duke of Guise to blame for, 142; 

Dieppe revolts after news of, 148; 

convinces Philip II it is time to act, 

211. 
Vendome, 127; rising in, 150. 
Venetian ambassador, quoted, 65, 70, 

201, 232. 
Venice, money from, 184; in league 

against the Turks, 423, n.; Henry 

III at, 488. 
Verdun, 301; France erects citadel at, 

307- 315- 
Vergt, battle of, 147, 154, 157, 215. 
Vernon, 152. 



Verre. See Avignon. 

Vesalius, physician of Phihp II, attends 
Henry II, 3. 

Vieilleville, marshal, governor of Metz, 
opposed to Guises, 125; succeeds 
St. Andre, 181; sent to Switzerland, 
240, 241; sent to Metz, 307; confers 
with Conde, 328; moderation of, 356. 

Vienna, cardinal of Lorraine sent to, 
196. 

Vienne. See Jean de Montluc. 

Vienne River, duke of Anjou with- 
draws army across, 387. 

Villebonne, governor of Rouen, 47, 48; 
guards Pont de I'Arche, 177. 

Villefranche, Coligny at, 181. 

Villeroy, reports on condition of king's 
army before La Rochelle, 459; sent 
to Languedoc, 476. 

Viscounts, 375; strength of, in the 
south, 391; early history of, 394-97; 
cross Loire River at Blois, 396; 
cross Dordogne River to join prince 
of Conde, 396; defeated in Perigord, 
396; destroy Gaillac, 396; join 
Montgomery, 397; helped by feud 
between Montluc and Damville, 
402, 403. 

Visieres, lieutenant of Montgomery, 
pursued by Guises, 41. 

Vivarais, viscount of Rapin in, 396; 

Coligny in, 411. 
Voulton, 334. 

Wallachia, Poland hopes to recover, 
455- 

Walloons, at siege of Poitiers, 387. 

Walsingham, urges marriage negotia- 
tions of Elizabeth to duke of Anjou, 
422. 

Warwick. See Havre-de-Grace. 

Warwick, earl of, instructions to, 166; 
seizes Havre de Grace, 167; hopes 
to compel towns of Seine to capitulate, 
177; urges Elizabeth, 184; pre- 
carious position of, 187, 201; surren- 
ders, 213. 

Westelburg, count of, 373. 

Wheat, price of, 286, 287, 343, 408. 

William of Orange, sends assurance to 
Coligny, 379; restoration of, de- 
manded by Huguenots, 417; urges 
alliance of France and England, 



INDEX 



63s 



440, 441; issues proclamation from 
Dillenberg, 444; at Frankfort Fair, 
446; overtures of France to, 462; 
treaty with England, 463, n.; plots in 
Tranche Comte, 492, 493; possible 
marriage of daughter of, to duke of 
Alenfon, 503. 

Windmills, burned by Huguenots in 
faubourgs of Paris, 327. 



Worcester, earl of, sent to France 455. 
Wiirtemburg, conference of duke of 

Guise with duke of, at Saverne, 123; 

sister of duke of, proposed as wife of 

Henry of Navarre, 422. 

Zealanders, disperse Spanish fleet at 

Sluys, 446. 
Zurich, alarmed at approach of duke of 

Alva, 308; neutrality of, 371. 



